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The setting up of a 300-megawatt solar power plant, the largest in Bangladesh, got regulatory approval on Wednesday.
A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase, chaired by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal, approved the proposal for the plant, which will be built by a consortium of Saudi-based ACWA Power Company and locally owned Comfit Composite Knit Ltd, Viyellatex Spinning Ltd and Midland East Power Ltd.
Cabinet Division Additional Secretary Sayeed Mahbub Khan told reporters after the meeting that the plant will be built in Rampal, Bagerhat district.
The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will buy electricity from the plant for a period of 20 years on a "no electricity, no payment" basis at a price of Tk 11.067 per kilowatt hour.
The cabinet body approved that some Tk 107.61 billion can be spent for the total power purchase from the plant, with a 12 per cent discount factor, 6 per cent tax at source and an 18.5 per cent plant factor.
The sponsor companies will get 36 months to build the plant after signing a power purchase deal with the BPDB, according to officials.
The meeting also approved two separate proposals for buying essential commodities for the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) to sell them to needy people at subsidised rates.
Under the approval, the TCB will buy 6,000 tonnes of lentil from Nabil Naba Foods Ltd under the local Open Tender Method (OTM) at a cost of Tk 570.5 million. Each kilogram of lentil will cost Tk 95.09.
The TCB will also buy 4.0 million litres of rice bran oil from Majumder Bran Oil Mills Ltd under the local OTM at Tk 646 million. Each litre of oil will cost Tk 161.5.
The meeting also approved five separate proposals from the Ministry of Industries to buy 125,000 tonnes of fertilizer from home and abroad.
Under the approvals, the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) will buy 25,000 tonnes of rock phosphate from M/S Agro Industrial Input, Dhaka at a cost of Tk 978.2 million where each tonne will cost $359.
Also, the BCIC will buy 10,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid from M/S Best Eastern, Dhaka at a cost of Tk 588.60 million. Each tonne of phosphoric acid will cost $540.
The BCIC will also buy 30,000 tonnes of bulk prilled urea fertiliser from Muntajat, Qatar under a state-level agreement at a cost of Tk 1.305 billion.
Also, the corporation will buy another consignment of 30,000 tonnes of bulk granular urea fertiliser from Muntajat, Qatar under a state-level agreement at a cost of Tk 1.311 billion.
The BCIC was also given go go-ahead to buy 30,000 tonnes of bagged granular urea fertiliser from KAFCO, Bangladesh at a cost of Tk 1.291 billion.