LGRD tops list of electricity bill defaulters: Nasrul Hamid

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said the power division was owed over Tk1,893 crore by various ministries and departments of the government. 

In response to a question by ruling party parliamentarian Mozaffar Hossain at the question and answer session of the Parliament on Tuesday, the state minister said of the total amount, Tk905.21 crore was owed by the local government division and Tk 395.68 crore by the disaster management ministry.

He said by strengthening supervision and implementing different field activities it had been "possible to reduce the amount of arrears."

Hamid said Tk88.46 crore was owed by the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, Tk64.22 crore from the Public Security Division, Tk63.61 crore from the Ministry of Agriculture, Tk43.56 crore from the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education and Tk39.99 crore from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

"All customers are being gradually brought under prepaid/smart metres to reduce the arrears. Fifty-one lakh, seven thousand and 452 such metres have been installed till last September. Another 20 lakh will be installed within the next year," he said.

In response to another question by Member of Parliament Nizam Uddin Hazari, the state minister said, "A total of 28.3 billion dollars has been invested in the power sector between the fiscal years 2009-10 to 2021-22. In this, the private sector has invested 9.73 billion dollars for power generation."

Hamid said since the Awami League came to power in 2009, 19,940 megawatts of electricity has been added to the national grid in the last three terms. So, total power generation capacity, including grid, off-grid and captive has increased to 25,730mw.