Photo : Messenger
Three power plants, including one rental power plant, owe Tk 106 crore to State-owned Sundarban Gas Company Ltd, as the company calculated the bill excluding the heating factors.
According to an audit report, Sundarban incurred a loss of Tk 6.96 crore in 2015-16 and Tk 7.55 crore in 2016-2017 from the 225 MW CCCP power plant as the company made the bill documents without adding the proper heating factor.
In the 2016-17 financial year, Sundarban Gas Company also did not deposit the profit to the government treasury through challan, resulting in a revenue loss for the government of Tk 3.89 crore.
The dues of Bhola 225MW Power Plant, the Rental Power Plant with 34.50MW, and Kushtia Bheramara 360MW amount to Tk 91.42 crore with an additional interest of Tk 1 crore.
According to the audit report, the company has been suffering financial losses because the bills are being made without calculating the heating factor, which is illegal. The report also recommends collecting the money and providing a detailed explanation.
Sundarban claims to have collected the money, but the audit team did not find any valid evidence of the disputed amount, and there was no proof of recovery, so the request was made to send the reply again.
Engineer Md Salauddin, the general manager of Sundarban Gas Company, told the Daily Messenger, "We are trying to recover the money, and we are sending letters to the power plants. I hope the money will be recovered soon."
Due to outstanding dues from the power plants, the gas companies are incurring losses, but the companies are supposed to make a profit.
Moreover, the government is suffering from outstanding bills to private power plants. Recently, the Titas Gas Distribution Company's report revealed that the company is going to incur a loss.
Prominent Energy Expert Professor Shamsul Alam told the Daily Messenger, “The entire energy sector is under corruption and mismanagement. There is no proper monitoring. Without financial accountability, the companies will not be self-sufficient.”
Due to the trend of outstanding bills, state-owned companies are lagging behind, resulting in government companies not making progress like private companies.
The government is taking one gas-based short-sighted project after another, while existing projects are suffering from gas and fuel shortages, leading to rising financial losses.
Besides, transmission and distribution infrastructure were built at a cost of around Tk 1,200 crore to provide gas in the Khulna-Jessore region without realizing the reality. Later, the government canceled the project in the face of a gas crisis. This huge investment is now lying underground, and the related companies are incurring bank loans and interest. Even if it doesn't work, such unnecessary and unplanned projects still do not stop at the stage.
Messenger/Jannatul/Disha
