Power division has sought finance authorities' intervention to realise some Tk 13.83 billion in unpaid electricity bills from state entities, officials said, as recovery efforts failed.
Officials said in a recent letter the power division requested the finance division to release adequate funds in line with the demand of the government entities so that they could pay off the debts that accumulated from electricity usage.
Until last November, 52 state-owned entities, autonomous-and constitutional bodies had owed Tk 13.83 billion to six power-distribution companies under government's power division.
Power secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus in the letter noted that country's electricity-generation capacity increased to 16,046 megawatts to respond to a growing demand. Around 90 per cent of the population got electricity for generation increase.
He also wrote that a large amount of money is needed to continue with power-production growth. But, different state entities and autonomous bodies owe a large sum to the power companies.
As a result, he wrote, the financial management of the power-distribution companies faced with adversities and their development activities also took a knock.
"Implementation of Prime Minister's great initiative for providing electricity to all also faces trouble (due to the bill dues)," he said in seeking finance's help in recovering the dues.
Payment of electricity bills in time is an imperative for power sector as well as country's overall development, he added.
Some documents show that the local-government division owes as high as Tk 7.73 billion as electricity bill followed by housing ministry Tk 1.02 billion, disaster management and relief ministry Tk 826 million, religion affairs ministry Tk 671 million, health service division Tk 440 million, public security division Tk 429 million, and secondary and higher education division Tk 395 million, among others.
Contacted over telephone Sunday, secretary-in-charge of the finance division Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury told the FE many of the ministries spend money taking budgetary allocation under one head to another.
"We keep allocation as per the requirements of the ministries and autonomous bodies during budget preparation. And, subsequently the money is disbursed as per requirements," he said.
He finds no reason for allocation under the head of electricity bills remaining un-disbursed from the ministry of finance.
"In many cases we raise questions when money allocated for electricity-bill payment is spent on other purposes," Mr Chowdhury noted.
He said paying electricity bill in time is the responsibility of the ministries and departments.
syful-islam@outlook.com