State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Wednesday said time will not be extended further after June 30 to pay delayed gas and electricity bills without any surcharge.
He made the statement while briefing reporters through a videoconference about the allocation of his ministry in the upcoming national budget 2020-21 scheduled to be placed in parliament on Thursday, reports UNB.
Earlier, on March 22, just before the start of the government-declared general holiday to prevent the Covid-19 pandemic, the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry had announced that the household consumers will not be charged extra for delayed payment of gas bills until June this year because of the pandemic.
At that time, separate circulars from the Power Division and the Energy Division were also issued in this regard.
Nasrul Hamid said it was now not possible to extend the time for delayed payment of bills without surcharge as his ministry could not afford such a huge amount of unpaid bills.
“It’s not affordable anymore to allow delayed payment whatever the situation is,” he told reporters during the virtual briefing.
He also informed that his ministry would have a proposed budget of Tk30,736.38 crore in the coming 2020-21 financial year.
Of this, Power Division has proposed to have a total outlay of development budget of Tk27,597.73 crore, of which Tk24,803.93 crore will come from the Finance Ministry, as budget allocation while ECA-financing is Tk1,837 crore (foreign loan), and the Power Division itself will finance Tk955.84 crore.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Division will have the total budget of Tk3,138.65 crore, of which the allocation from the Finance Ministry is Tk1,835.72 crore, Tk260.29 crore from Gas Development Fund (GDF), and Tk1,042.74 crore from self-financing from the Energy Division.
The state minister said the Power Division will have main focus on implementation of power transmission and distribution projects to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply, while the Energy Division’s main focus will be on gas transmission pipeline construction and single point mooring line construction for petroleum fuel transportation.
