Budget FY25: Power sector sees 15% allocation cut

The government has decided to cut 15 percent of allocation for the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources in the proposed budget today.

The allocation will be Tk 30,317 crore, which was Tk 34,819 crore last fiscal.

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Among the two divisions of the ministry, Power Division mainly faced the allocation cut by Tk 4,595 crore while the Energy and Mineral Resources Division got Tk 93 crore more than the previous budget allocation.

The allocation for Power Division is Tk 29,230 crore and for the energy division Tk 1,087 crore.

In the budget speech, Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali said the power generation capacity was only 4,942 MW in 2009, which has now increased to 30,277 MW including the captive and renewable energy.

"Currently, 27 power plants with a capacity of 9,144 MW are under construction," he said.

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The finance ministry said the government has been attaching the highest importance and top priority to the development of the power sector and is implementing various projects to improve the generation, transmission and distribution systems.

"Already, in fulfilment of its pledge, the government has brought 100 percent of the population under the electricity coverage and plans have been taken to increase the power generation capacity to 40,000 MW by 2030 and 60,000 MW by 2041," he said.

They have plans to increase the power transmission lines to 24,000 circuit kilometres by modernizing the grid, which is now 15,246 circuit-km.

The government also proposed a special allocation of Tk 100 crore to encourage the development and use of renewable energy. Besides, another Tk 100 crore was proposed to allocate against the blue economy research.