Defying the government's new power tariff structure, the Rural Electrification Board (REB) paid the Power Development Board (PDB) at a lower rate for power purchase, depriving it of at least Tk 8 crore revenue per month since March.
Such a blatant irregularity went unnoticed for months as a section of PDB and REB officials were involved in it.
The power ministry received a complaint in this regard from the PDB recently and upon reviewing it instructed the REB to clear the arrears within three days and punish the officials responsible for this.
Consequently, the REB cleared arrears for July and August and is expected to pay off that for March to June. "These arrears would be around Tk 25 crore," said a power ministry source.
The REB buys power worth around Tk 147 crore from the PDB every month and sells it for a much higher return. But due to widespread irregularities in the REB's cooperatives which sell the power, the organisation makes little profit.
The government nominally enhanced power tariff in March to minimise losses incurred by the PDB for selling power at a rate much lower than its production cost. PDB's average power sale rate was increased to Tk 2.37 per kilowatt hour (one unit) from its previous rate of Tk 2.15 per unit. PDB's average power production cost is Tk 2.53 a unit.
The REB is enjoying a subsidised power tariff ever since its inception. But this forces the PDB to swallow heavy losses. While REB's average power sales rate for its customers is close to Tk 4 per unit, it pays less than Tk 2 per unit to the PDB.
In such a situation, the government in March decided that out of 67 Palli Bidyut Samities (PBS) of the REB which buy and sell PDB's power, nine major PBS will pay a different power tariff. These PBS will pay Tk 2.16 per unit and the other 58 PBS will pay Tk 1.82 per unit. The government asked the PDB and REB to identify these nine major PBS.
Accordingly, the PDB and REB identified these PBS, which are located around Dhaka and Narsinghdi, and sell power mainly to industrial customers.
From then on, the PDB sent its bills to the REB on the nine PBS using the new tariff structure. But the REB arbitrarily revised these bills on its own and paid the PDB at the rate of Tk 1.82 per unit. Strangely, the PDB's departments concerned did not bring this matter to the notice of the authorities.
The PDB authorities came to know this following changes in some of the posts concerned a few months back. The PDB then raised objections with the REB but the anomalies continued.
And late last month, the PDB brought the matter to the notice of the power secretary showing that eight out of the nine PBS consumed PDB's electricity worth Tk 60 crore but the REB arbitrarily revised the bill on its own and paid the PDB only Tk 52 crore.
The power secretary asked the REB chairman to explain the anomalies but there was no response. The REB was then asked to clear the arrears within three days and punish those responsible for this irregularity. The REB immediately cleared one such bill and started processing clearance of other arrears.
"As per rules, the REB will have to pay the PDB an extra 2 percent over the arrears," said one source.
A PDB source alleged that some officers of general manager's rank were involved in the anomalies.