Suspense Crime Sach Ka Dam
Adani Power’s subsidiary Adani Power Jharkhand Limited (APJL) has reduced its electricity supply to Bangladesh by half due to outstanding bills of $846 million. According to a report published in the newspaper ‘Daily Star’ on Friday, data from Power Grid Bangladesh PLC showed that Adani Group’s power plant had reduced supply from Thursday night. According to media reports, Bangladesh reported a power shortage of more than 1600 MW between Thursday and Friday night. The reason for this is that the plant with a capacity of about 1496 MW is now producing only 700 MW of electricity from one unit.
Adani Power wrote the letter on 27 October.
Earlier, Adani Power had written a letter to the Energy Secretary of Bangladesh requesting that the Bangladesh Electricity Development Board (PDB) be asked to pay the outstanding amount by October 30. In a letter written on October 27, the Adani Group company said that if the outstanding bills are not paid, the company will be forced to take necessary steps under the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) by suspending the power supply on October 31.
Bangladesh also backtracked on a loan of $170 million.
Adani Power said the PDB has neither disbursed a $170 million loan facility from Bangladesh Krishi Bank nor paid the $846 million dues. The Daily Star quoted a PDB official as saying that a part of the previous dues had been paid earlier but since July APJL has been charging more than in previous months. He said the PDB has been paying about $18 million every week while the charges are more than $22 million, causing the dues to increase.
The company increased the prices after the completion of 1 year of the agreement.
Regarding the additional payment, the official said that when the PDB raised questions about the price of coal in February last year, a supplementary agreement was signed. In this, the Adani Group company was bound to keep the prices lower than the rates charged by other coal-based power plants. The report says that after the completion of the one-year supplementary deal, Adani Power has again started charging as per the PPA.
