Rampal rejoinder and our reply

The Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (Pvt) Limited, the parent company of the 1,320MW Rampal power plant, has issued a three-page rejoinder in response to a report published by The Business Standard on 20 April, titled "Matarbari power tariff set to be Tk8.45 per unit – 60% lower than Rampal."

In the rejoinder, the Rampal authority described the tariff comparison between the Rampal and 1,200MW Matarbari power plants as "misleading" and accused the report of "repeatedly targeting" the Rampal facility. 

It further alleged that the article aimed to "sensationalise" the issue and reflected a "grossly flawed and irresponsible analysis" of Bangladesh's power sector. The rejoinder also claimed the report could "misinform the public" and "undermine investor confidence" in a sector critical to the country's development.

Our response

We respectfully disagree with these claims. The report was based on the facts and figures from power division and BPDB which clearly shows that power cost from Rampal power plant was Tk13.57 per unit, which is even higher than SS Power and Payra power plant in FY23

In our report we drew the comparison between the newly determined tariff of Matarbari with each of the mentioned power plants as the government wants to renegotiate tariffs of other coal based power plants highlighting Matarbari as a benchmark.

The Rampal authority did not refute the tariff mentioned in the report on Rampal power plant. In the report, we didn't write about the project cost and the determinant of high power cost as it was not our report angel. 

In the rejoinder, there are so many things we see invented by the Rampal authority which are completely non-existent in our report. TBS stands by its report.