Different power companies in Bangladesh are taking away about Tk 20 thousand crore in the name of capacity charges; India’s Adani Group is the latest addition in that list.
They (Adani) will take away Tk 1 lakh 26 thousand 581 crore in the name of capacity charge. Besides, Bangladesh has to bear massive cost for bringing coal from Australia and Indonesia. Some 45 per cent higher prices will be charged for the coal. All payments must be paid in US dollar.
India’s Adani Power Limited has signed this discriminatory deal with Bangladesh after concealing information.
After meeting all conditions, Bangladesh will have to purchase power from Adani at three times higher prices than usual.
Bangladesh has to pay massive capacity charge to Adani Power Limited even if power is not purchased. The PDB has to pay $39.43m capacity charge for the Adani’s power plant. Around $473.16m will have to be paid as a capacity charge for Adani’s power plant. A total of $11.83b or Tk 1 lakh 26 thousand and 581 crore (1 dollar= Tk106.95) will be spent in the name of capacity charge in 25 years.
The PDB has to pay 16 percent higher capacity charges and 45 percent higher prices for fuel compared to other coal-fired power plants in Bangladesh.
Power experts are in doubt whether there is another similar project in the world like Godda project or not. This is because the coal for the project is supposed to come from coal mines in Australia. It will arrive by ship at Dhamra seaport in Odisha of India. This port also belongs to Adani Group. From there, the coal will be brought to the Jharkhand by train. The electricity generated there will come to Bangladesh via West Bengal.
A report titled 'Is Bangladesh's Electricity Contract with Adani Legally Void' published on the website 'Adani Watch' from Australia on February 9 states that Bangladesh will have to buy electricity from Godda at a price three times higher than usual. Bangladesh has already realised this. For this reason, Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) wants to sign a new agreement with Adani. Bangladesh has to purchase electricity from Adani at a much higher cost than the electricity produced by other companies. The report also states that the land of the power plant was declared as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) by the Government of India in 2019. As such, Adani Power gets all kinds of duty-tax exemptions. According to the agreement, Bangladesh is supposed to be informed the matter within 30 days. This is because capacity charges and coal import costs will be reduced due to duty-tax concessions. However, this matter was not informed to Bangladesh. The issue of tax exemption was kept secret.
Apart from this, according to the agreement, Adani Power has to pay these electricity bills in US dollars. At the time of signing the deal, the price of 1 dollar (US) in Bangladesh was Tk81.19 and now it has increased to Tk 104. The Adani Watch report also mentions that coal from Australia is to be sourced from Adani's own mines for the Godda project. But on October 10 last year, Adani Power invited tenders for the project to supply 5.9 million tonnes of coal over 25 years, which is suspicious.
In a nutshell, energy experts state that Bangladesh's electricity deal with Adani Group is discriminatory and fraudulent. They say that through this deal theAdani Group has indulged in deception. In this agreement, they resorted to rigging.
Energy expert and Energy Advisor of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Prof Shamsul Alam said, "We can declare Adani as an ineligible contractor considering legal aspects. Thus, we can say that we will not take electricity from them after cancelling this contract. Because we can purchase coal and generate electricity by ourselves spending half of the money that we promised to give Adani for buying electricity. In the public interest, this agreement should be cancelled and electricity should be generated in other coal-based power plants in the country instead of buying electricity from Adani. If the government makes concessions in this regard, it must be understood that an active and opportunistic circle within the government had an active role in signing this deal. The vicious cycle saw Adani's interests at the cost of the country's interests. This cycle should be identified and convicted as ‘energy criminals’. And if not, the interests of the country will not be protected.”
Incidentally, an agreement was signed between Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and Adani Power (Jharkhand) Limited to take electricity from India; which is known as Godda Pact.
Mentionable, apart from India and Bangladesh, there are widespread discussions regarding this agreement in other countries of the world.
In the meantime, the US-based capital market related firm Hindenburg published a detailed report on Adani's stock market manipulation and accounting fraud. At that time, information about the manipulation of Adani Group while exporting electricity to Bangladesh also came to the fore. Since then, question has arisen about the legality of the Godda Accord across the globe, reports Daily Sun.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
