Power Division’s sudden fund request baffles Finance Ministry

Thirteen days after the FY17 budget was passed, on July 13, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid sent a letter to the financial minister seeking an additional Tk4,000cr for development projects under the Power Division in the current fiscal year. The one-page letter did not elaborate why this amount was left out while formulating budget or how the ministry came to the conclusion that it needed more funds. “Considering the reality,” it said, an additional Tk4,000cr was needed to implement Power Division projects properly. It listed six Power Division projects, three of them rural electricity connection projects, one renovation project and two projects in Sylhet, the finance minister's constituency. Finance Minister AMA Muhith, upon seeing this letter on April 17, wrote a brief comment on top of it that said: “We just passed the budget. Such a large demand within days.” Nasrul's letter warned that the development projects mentioned would face delays and cost overruns if the requested funds are not issued. The power and energy sector was a special priority for the government, the state minister's letter said. “Without the necessary allocations the government's initiative to bring power to everybody by 2021 under the Vision 2021 will also be hampered,” it said. On June 30, the Parliament passed a Tk340,605cr national budget for the fiscal year 2016-17. In the budget the government allocated Tk13,062.09cr for development projects in the Power Division. Of this amount, Tk6,744.09cr will come from the government exchequer and rest from foreign project assistance. The projects mentioned in the ministry's letter include three projects on new rural connections – one for 1.8 million connections and two for 1.5 millions in rural areas. There is one project to replace 70,000 overloaded transformers.