The government has fixed the power tariff at Tk 8.45 ($0.766) per kilowatt-hour for the coal-fired Matarbari 1,200MW Ultra Super Critical Power Plant. 

The tariff was approved at a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Government Purchases yesterday.

Of the tariff, Tk 5.84 was set against fuel cost and Tk 2.61 would be for capacity payment.

Calculating around 85 percent of the load factor of the plant (PLF), Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) has to pay a total of Tk 2,17,004 crore in the next 30 years to the plant.

The PLF is a measure of how efficiently a power plant is being utilised compared to its maximum possible output. The government will use the rate as a benchmark tariff to renegotiate deals with all the other coal fired power plants.

Fouzul Kabir Khan, adviser to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, said they were holding talks with representatives of the other power plants.

Due to "other expenses", their price could have differed by Tk 0.30 or Tk 0.40 but the plants were being paid Tk 3 to Tk 4 higher.

"Why?" he asked in a seminar last Saturday, adding, "We are not taking any arbitrary decisions."

The PDB's annual report on power plants states that Adani was paid Tk 14.88 per kWh, Rampal Tk 15.29 kWh, Payra Tk 11.83 kWh, SS Power Tk 20.43 per kWh and Barishal 307MW power plant Tk 12.49 per kWh in fiscal year 2023-24.

In yesterday's meeting of the purchase committee, the government approved a decision to import three cargoes of liquified natural gas (LNG) from the spot market for June at around Tk 1,620 crore following public procurement regulations.

The cargoes will be delivered by three Singaporean companies—Aramco Trading Singapore Pte Ltd at Tk 534.76 crore, Gunvor Singapore Pte Ltd at Tk 540.51 crore and Vitol Asia Pte Ltd at Tk 544.77 crore.

Every cargo will contain 33.60 lakh Million British Thermal Units (MMBtu) of LNG while the unit price would be $11.15, $11.27 and $11.36 per MMBtu respectively.