Govt repays over Tk 186 billion in outstanding foreign power bills in one year

The interim government has repaid an amount of Tk 186.31 billion (Tk 18,631 crore) as outstanding foreign power bills against electricity imports, Power Division officials said today.

“The government has been actively working to settle outstanding bills, including those owed to (India’s) Adani Power and others,” Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Adviser Dr Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan told BSS.

He said that of the amount, the Power Division has paid Tk 50 billion (Tk 5,000 crore) to Adani Power Limited against its dues of Tk 79.35 billion (Tk 7,934.89 crore) as electricity bill, and “now Adani will get Tk 23.64 billion (Tk 2,363.50 crore).”

Khan said that the government took various steps to minimise avoidable expenditures related to different power projects, and so far Tk 64.79 billion (Tk 6,479 crore) has been saved.

Power Division officials said that under an extensive effort over the past year, they reduced the import service charge by 4 per cent—worth Tk 4.70 billion (Tk. 470 crore)—to 5 per cent from 9 per cent for energy imports for private power plants.

Apart from this, the quantity of shipment was increased to 20,000 tonnes from 15,000 tonnes, which will also save Tk 3.54 billion (Tk 354 crore). Tariff renegotiation was done, which is lower than the average selling price of Tk 8.95 per unit, to save Tk 25 billion (Tk 2,500 crore) annually.

Meanwhile, the government shut down 10 inefficient and outdated old plants by Independent Power Producers (IPPs) or rental power plants, having a generation capacity of 1,010 MW, which saved Tk 5.25 billion (Tk 525 crore).

Besides, steps were taken to save Tk 26.30 billion (Tk 2,630 crore) through the public power generation companies.

The Power Division requested the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to reduce tax at source to 6 per cent, while the revenue income was targeted at Tk 92.10 billion (Tk 9,210 crore) from renting establishments.

On May 6, 2025, the Advisory Council meeting approved an amendment to the Renewable Energy Policy in principle.

Under the Renewable Energy Policy, the government fixed a target to produce 3,000 MW of green energy from rooftop solar panels across the country.

The rooftop solar programmes will be implemented by December this year, while the extra electricity will be connected to the national grid.