Dhaka: India’s Adani Power Jharkhand Limited (APJL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Power, has stopped half of its power supply to Bangladesh because of outstanding bills of USD 846 million, according to a local media report on Friday. Data from Power Grid Bangladesh PLC showed the Adani plant reduced supply on Thursday night, The Daily Star newspaper said.
Bangladesh reported a shortfall of more than 1,600 megawatts (MW) on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday as the 1,496 MW plant is now producing 700 MW from a single unit, the newspaper reported.
Earlier, the Adani company wrote to the power secretary asking the Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) to clear its outstanding dues by October 30.
The letter, dated October 27, said that if the bills are not paid, the company shall be constrained to take remedial action under the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) by suspending the power supply on October 31.
The company said that the PDB has neither provided a letter of credit (LC) for an amount of USD 170.03 million from Bangladesh Krishi Bank nor cleared the outstanding amount of USD 846 million.
The newspaper quoted a PDB official as saying that they had earlier cleared a portion of previous dues, but since July, Adani has been charging more than the previous months. He said the PDB has been paying around USD 18 million weekly, while the charge is more than USD 22 million.