Non-payment of over Tk 76.56 billion in dues by its customers has put the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) in serious liquidity trouble, officials said.
The Board usually makes payments to creditors and finance its development projects with its sales proceeds. The development activities have been suffering due to the non-payment of arrear electricity bills by the state and other agencies, they said.
"A large sum is recoverable from different state and private organisations on account of arrear power bills. As a result, we face problems in execution of our development projects," General Manager (commercial operation) of BPDB Md Anwarul Islam told the FE.
The statutory body is likely to request the Ministry of Finance to help recovery of the arrear power bills or arrange an inter-ministerial meeting for tackling the existing liquidity crisis, a source concerned, who deals with financial issues at the BPDB, said.  
Currently, arrear electricity bills worth Tk 76.56 billion have remained unpaid by different state-run entities and private firms until January 2016. Of the defaulters, state entity Dhaka Electric Supply Authority (DESA) (former) owes Tk 28.04 billion, private/non-government organisations owe Tk 13.64 billion, Rural Electrification Board (REB) owes Tk 13.19 billion, Dhaka Power Distribution Company Limited (DPDC) Tk 11.29 billion and Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO) Tk 5.27 billion, according to BPDB data.
DPDC, DESCO, REB and West Zone Power Distribution Company Ltd (WZPDCL) are bulk customers of the Board. On the other hand, the rest of the public and private agencies are its retail customers.
"Presently, the BPDP is facing a liquidity crisis because of non-payment of dues of electricity bills by the different private and public agencies," a senior official of the BPDB said.
The BPDB is responsible for greater part of power generation and distribution of electricity mainly in urban areas except Dhaka and West Zone of the country. The Board is under the Power Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources.
The BPDB has taken a massive capacity expansion plan to add about 11,600mw in next 5 years to achieve 24,000mw capacity, according to PSMP-2010 by 2021 with the aim to provide quality and reliable electricity to all the people of the country for desired economic and social development.
The entity started its operation with installed generation capacity of only 200mw which has now increased to 12,229mw, according to the official page of the board.
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Source: The Financial Express