Power bill dues rise to Tk 166cr in Sylhet

Sylhet Regional Power Distribution Office is showing hardly any progress in collecting the due bills from the different government, semi-government and private organisations despite directives of the power division.

The unrealised bills rose to Tk 166.14 crore till March 2016, in which the due bills of the government and semi-government organisations are Tk 29.98 crore, according to an official document obtained by The Daily Star from Sylhet Regional Power Distribution Office sources.

Ratan Kumar Biswas, chief engineer of Bangladesh Power Development Board, Sylhet, told The Daily Star that the government offices have their own allotment from respective ministries for paying the electricity bills, but they stopped their regular payments. “We have requested them to clear the dues repeatedly; we even offered installment basis payment plans.”

SCC owes around Tk 5 crore, said Enamul Habib, chief executive officer of SCC. “We are paying the current bills. Bills are paid collecting taxes from different sources. As the tax collection delays, so does our bill payments.” Joynal Abedin, deputy commissioner of Sylhet, said their outstanding dues are around Tk 3 crore. “We have paid Tk 20 lakh last June. We will pay the dues accordingly after getting our allotment from the ministry.”

Ratan Kumar said the due bills of the residential and private institutions are around Tk 136 crore.

According to the document, major shopping malls and local industries are listed with huge amount of dues. Sylhet Plastic Industries, Kanij Plaza, Blue Water Shopping City, Sylhet City Centre, Kakoli Shopping City, Al Hamra Shopping City, and Golden Tower are among the few.

Moloy Bhushon Dutta, manager of the Blue Water Shopping City, said their pending bill is around Tk 25 lakh. “The dues are from 2013. The political situation at that time forced us to halt our regular business. We are paying the updated bills, but it is taking time to pay the due ones.”

“There is a provision to disconnect the electricity lines for not getting two months' bill. But we could not snap the connections considering social, political and economical reasons,” said Ratan Kumar.

“Sylhet is much ahead in collecting due bills and we are trying our level best to continue that,” he added.