Govt. bodies not paying their electricity bills
It would seem that many government, semi and non-government bodies believe that the electricity they consume is free. It is not free. The government is spending huge sums of money to generate electricity as the state minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources disclosed in parliament recently that various ministries and other state and non-state bodies owe Tk 1,434 crore in due bills. Indeed, the minister went ahead and furnished the names of 43 ministries and other organisations who have defaulted on payments. While we appreciate the minister's efforts to get to realise said amounts that have gone as far as disconnecting lines, the fact of the matter is that we find this practice to be unacceptable.
We understand that there is an allocation from the government to state and autonomous bodies on a yearly basis to meet electricity bills. What happens to these allocations? This should be looked into. The government is implementing the introduction of pre-paid electricity metres to the whole of Dhaka city (Chittagong too) in phases. Why can't it do the same for these institutions? Might we suggest that the government introduce pre-paid electricity metres in government, semi-government institutions and autonomous bodies? Going by historical data, the relevant authorities already know precisely which ministry or other body consumes how much electricity on an average per month. Authorities could make necessary adjustments to the annual budgetary allocations and save themselves a lot of headache. It is high time that state bodies learn to pay their bills like ordinary consumers do in Bangladesh.
Comments