Adani Enterprises Limited director Pranav Adani is expected to meet finance minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali today at the Secretariat.
The visit by one of the top Adani Group officials was going to take place at a time when the Power Development Board is struggling to clear the payment for purchasing power from the group due to shortage of dollars, said finance ministry officials.
On May 7, state minister for power Nasrul Hamid said in the parliament that the PDB owed Tk 5,297 crore to different Indian companies, Adani one of them.
The visiting Adani official may seek measures from the finance minister for clearing the power bills, said the officials.聽聽聽聽聽聽
The PDB has been purchasing power from the 1600-Megawatt coal-fired power plant built by the Adani Group in the Indian state of Jharkhand in 2023.
Reportedly, under a 25-year deal, the Adani Group is selling electricity to the PDB at a high price with a lucrative profit margin.
The PDB鈥檚 overall outstanding arrears stood at Tk 33,108 crore to different power generation companies, both public and private, including Indian companies, against their sale of electricity.
US state department assistant secretary for South and Central Asia Donald Lu in a recent visit inquired about the dollar shortage as the US companies investing in Bangladesh cannot remit their profits at home.
The government is borrowing from the International Monetary Fund under a 4.7 billion loan programme to check depletion of forex reserves to $18 billion from $48 billion in August 2021.
The IMF has already disbursed $1.1 billion while another $1.15 billion is expected to be released in the next month.