More tax facilities for private power plants
The government has extended more tax facility to private power plants with the view to making their energy cheaper to purchase.
The National Board of Revenue relaxed the condition of tax holiday for the private sector power generation companies except coal-based power plant last week.
According to gazette notification, under the existing policy the power plants would have to go for generation within December 2019. But, the revised notification extended the condition for start of commercial generation to December 2022.
Under the rules, the private power generation companies will get five types of tax facilities, including tax holiday on their income from power until December 2034. The foreign employees who work in the power plant will get a three-year tax holiday. Besides, the company will get tax waiver on interest of foreign loan, royalty, technical know-how and technical assistance fee.
The total power generation capacity of 137 public-private power plants is 19,000 megawatt (MW).
Of them, 80 private power plants have generation capacity of 9,000 MW, according to power division official.
Another 28 private power plant are under contraction and 12 plant are waiting for approval stage.
Besides, 18 public sector power plants are under construction, whose generation capacity is 8,900 MW.
The Awami League took intuitive to increase power generation through private sector after coming in power in 2009 as the government enacted a special act to reduce severe power crisis in the country. At the same time, the government aimed to reduce dependency on private sector power generation.
The government is providing subsidy of about Tk 10,000 crore every year. On the other hand, the government has to increase the price of power, raising the expenditure of general people. A high official of the power division said they will not reduce the dependency on private sector for power but they will ensure the least cost of power.
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