Move to adjust missing coal

The authorities of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited (BCMCL) in a recent board of directors' meeting held in Dhaka made a proposal for adjustment of the 1.45 lakh tonnes of coal that was found missing during Petrobangla officials' visit to the mine site on July 16 this year.

“At the September 10 meeting, we proposed adjustment of the missing coal for maintaining stock inventory,” said Fazlur Rahman, managing director (MD) of BCMCL.

He was appointed to the post after removal of the then MD Habib Uddin Ahmed on July 19.

The meeting, however, failed to reach any decision over the issue, said mine officials.

The production cost of 1.45 lakh tonnes of coal would be Tk 113.26 crore.

According to the official records, BCMCL produced 1.2 crore tonnes of coal since 1996. Of it, 1.78 lakh tonne was produced during the development work till 2005, while the rest was produced after the commercial production started in 2005.

Of it, 66.87 lakh tonne was sold to Barapukuria 525MW coal-fired power plant of Bangladesh Power Development Board, located near the mine site, 33.20 lakh tonne was sold to industry units and brick field operators while the company used over 12,000 tonnes of coal for internal purposes.

Against the expected 1.48 lakh tonnes of coal stock at its yard, the high officials of Petrobangla during their visit on July 16 found only 3,000 tonnes, which means 1.45 lakh tonnes of coal worth Tk 220 crore was missing. 

Afterwards, Petrobangla authorities suspended Habib Uddin Ahmed, the then MD of BCMCL, Abu Taher Mohammad Nuruzzaman Chowdhury, general manager, and AKM Khaledul Islam, deputy general manager.

Petrobangla investigated the coal missing scam internally and formed a six-member technical committee to evaluate the technical or system losses, which BCMCL officials claimed to be 1.4 percent. 

The amount of the missing coal would be the same if the system loss is 1.4 percent.

A case was filed with Parbatipur Police Station on July 24 accusing 19 officials of BCMCL.

BCMCL suspended coal production on June 16 for development work and the power plant, the largest coal user of BCMCL, was shut down on July 22.

It restarted on September 14, following the resumption of coal production of BCMCL on September 8.