HC verdict on the law of impunity in the power sector

Invalidation of two core provisions of the much-talked-about Speedy Power and Energy Supply (Special) Act 2010, popularly known as impunity law for the power sector, by a High Court (HC) bench will be greeted with an open heart by everyone barring the beneficiaries of those. After taking over the rein of the administration, the interim government put on hold the application of the 'black' law on August 18.

The latest actions, legal or administrative, would stop the relevant authorities from initiating arbitrary measures in the future. Still, enough damage has already been caused to the power sector and the national economy in general during the last 14 years. More than Taka one trillion has already been disbursed as 'capacity' payments to some businesspeople who own rental and independent power plants.

In 2010, when the then grand alliance government, led by the AL, enacted the law in question for two years, citing the need for awarding unsolicited power plant contracts, most people did not oppose it, for they wanted a fast improvement of a very deplorable power situation. They could not suspect the government's ill motive to rip the country off a massive amount of money in subsequent years using some provisions of the law in question. Businesses with links with the autocratic regime got more than what was due in capacity payments and oil imports. No amount of criticism could deter the Hasina government from patronizing the rental plants to help a chosen few plunder taxpayers' money. The existing gap between power generation capacity and actual demand tells the story of the plunder of taxpayers' money on an unprecedented scale. The Hasina government had demonstrated arbitrariness in managing most state affairs until it was ousted through a massive student-people upsurge. The power and energy sector is one area that bears the brunt of deliberate mishandling.

The Hasina regime had chosen a quick-fix solution to the power crisis in the initial years through the installation of small and medium-scale rental power plants. While doing so, it found the 'indemnity law' convenient to fix power purchase rates and capacity payments arbitrarily. In the subsequent years, it had gone for some big coal-based and nuclear power projects against the country's fast-depleting natural gas reserves. Most power project deals have given rise to controversies. The power supply deal with Adani's coal-based power plant located in the Indian state of Jharkhand remains a glaring example of the wantonness of the Hasina regime. The Indian conglomerate got higher power tariffs and some coal procurement favours at the expense of the national exchequer. The AL government also demonstrated similar generosity towards most other power and energy projects built with external assistance.

Section 6(2) of the said act allows the minister concerned to take up projects without tender to increase the production and supply of electricity on an emergency basis. Then again, section 9 of the said act says no one can ask questions in a court of law regarding the establishment and operations of rental and quick-rental power plants. While declaring these provisions illegal, the two-judge HC bench maintained that legal impunity granted to the executive authority for its actions under the said act contradicted the constitutional mandate.However, the bench temporarily exonerated the deals already signed under the act but granted the government the right to revisit such deals if necessary. It is thus time for the interim government to examine all the power and energy deals signed during the last one and a half decades and take punitive measures, at least, against persons involved in large-scale plunder of resources taking advantage of the particular act for the power sector.