Shamim Jahangir:
State-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) may deposit its Tk 20 billion idle money to the national exchequer in the current FY 2020-21.
A law was passed in 2020 to make it mandatory for state-run agencies to hand over their idle and surplus funds to the government.
Parliament passed the Deposit of Surplus Funds of Autonomous, Semi-Autonomous, State-Owned, and Public Non-Financial Corporations into the Government Treasury Act 2020 in January.
“We have decided to contribute Tk 20 billion to the public fund. So far we have deposited Tk 5 billion last week,” BPDB chairman Engineer Belayet Hossain told the Daily Sun on Sunday. The BPDB will deposit the rest of the amount within May 2021 by depositing Tk 5 billion every month.
“We have sent a letter on Sunday and requested the finance division to receive the payment under Debt Service Liability (DSL),” the BPDB chief said.
The BPDB chairman said they had a meeting with the finance division in this regard. According to BPDB sources, the state-owned BPDB has a plan to keep aside Tk 99.72 billion or 25 per cent as ‘Emergency Crisis Fund’ from its operational cost of Tk 398.87 billion as per the audit of last fiscal.
The ‘Emergency Crisis Fund’ will be used for power purchase from public and private sponsored power plants. The fund will also be used for electricity import from India, according to BPDB sources.
Besides, the fuel import cost will also be met from the emergency fund and the surplus money of the power sector development fund will be omitted from the idle money category.
The BPDB has a deposit of Tk 29 billion as pension funds and another Tk 32.88 billion as the future development fund. The pension and future development fund of 14,000 officials and employees will also be excluded from the ideal fund.
The overhauling costs of public power stations at a cost of Tk 26.21 billion in the current and next fiscal year have also been requested to be excluded from the idle money category.
Besides, the BPDB has decided to separate the proposed ‘excluded fund’ from its balance sheet and sent a letter to the ministry of finance in this regard.
A total of 13 state-owned enterprises (SoEs) have deposited funds to the national treasury, according to the finance ministry.
Nine SoEs deposited a total of Tk 160.46 billion last fiscal year. The government is expected to receive Tk 200 billion from SoEs in the current fiscal year.