Bangladesh under pressure due to Adani

Adani Group has promised to supply electricity to Bangladesh as per the agreement despite the arrears. But at the same time they called on the interim government of Bangladesh to pay the dues quickly. Meanwhile, due to the power bill of India's Adani Group, Bangladesh's outstanding amount exceeds 800 million dollars, but Sonali Bank is unable to pay it due to the dollar shortage.

Adani Power, an Adani Group company, is supplying electricity to the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) under a 25-year contract. Since March last year, this electricity has been coming to Bangladesh from Adani's 1600 MW coal-fired power plant at Godda, Jharkhand, India.

Bangladesh is getting 700 to 800 MW of electricity per day according to the demand, although there is an opportunity to buy 1,496 MW of electricity under the agreement. That is why PDB receives a bill of 90 to 100 million dollars from Adani every month.

Dollars are sent from Bangladesh to Adani Group through Sonali Bank to pay bills. Sonali Bank paid it with dollars from Bangladesh Bank's reserves.

But due to the dollar crisis, Sonali Bank could not repay the entire dollar. Bangladesh is left with 476 million dollars in partial payment of bills at various times. Of this, the last 3.5 million dollars was sent by Sonali Bank in December 2023.

According to this, Bangladesh has arrears of 645 million dollars till May. With this, if we calculate the arrears of June and July, the total amount exceeds 800 million dollars.

Sonali Bank's Managing Director (MD) asked about this. Afzal Karim told the media, Yes, we cannot pay all the payments at once. Making partial payment.

Sonali Bank MD Afzal Karim told the media that the dollar income from remittance and export income is insufficient compared to the requirement. Still, if needed, demand is met with dollars from interbanks.

The Economic Times of India, quoting the Adani Group, also said in a report on August 23 that it owed $800 million. It has been said there that although Adani Power has no plan to stop electricity supply in Bangladesh, if the arrears increase like this, the Indian company will be under pressure to pay the bills of creditors and coal suppliers. For that reason, they have already contacted the interim government of Bangladesh.

Quoting Adani Group, a news portal called Moneycontrol wrote on Friday that they have requested the interim government of Bangladesh to pay the dues quickly. Adani Group is under pressure from investors.

Due to the international situation, Bangladesh is under pressure for the dollar for the last two years. Reserves have been reduced to 20.50 billion dollars. The Awami League government has collapsed, the interim government of Bangladesh is going to ask the IMF for another 3 billion dollars to solve the situation.

Chairman of Bangladesh Power Development Board regarding Adani's arrears. Rezaul Karim told the media that now there is an agreement to pay bills only through Sonali Bank. But Sonali Bank is in dollar crisis. So Adani's electricity bill is falling due. We are talking to the governor, if any other bank can be brought under this agreement with Sonali Bank, which has good supply of dollars. Talks are being held to bring one-two more banks under the ambit of this agreement.

Bangladesh Bank Spokesperson and Executive Director Mejbaul Haque told the media that the banks with which the responsibility of paying the dollars of these government contracts is done, have to pay it. Banks were supported earlier from reserves, because they had dollar shortages.

Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) signed an agreement with Adani Power on November 5, 2017 to purchase electricity. During Sheikh Hasina's tenure, it was argued by the government that electricity would be available at low cost or local market price without investment. As a result, investments will not have to be rushed, but a lot of money will be saved. After the deal, Adani started setting up the power plant in Godda, Jharkhand state, India in 2020. But people of Bangladesh did not have the right idea or information about that agreement.

The agreement to sell electricity to Bangladesh was also leaked amid the disclosure of various scams in India's Adani industrial group. It can be seen that electricity will come from Adani not at a low price, but at a higher price than the local market. The price of coal has to be paid more. Apart from this, even if there is no production, 450 million dollars will have to be paid as annual capacity charge.

At that time, there was a question about Adani's import of electricity by keeping the country's power plants in spite of having the capacity. Experts also questioned the rationale of importing electricity. Moreover, there was a lot of criticism for not matching the leaked contract information with the information provided by the Sheikh Hasina government.

The Interim Government has already appointed a 5-member committee to review the agreements made under the Rapid Supply of Electricity and Energy Act during the Awami League government.

Bangladesh /RH