It is not easy to cancel deal in energy sector: Rizwana

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, adviser to the Ministry of Environment, Forest Climate Change, has expressed her government’s limited scope in coming out of the deal in the country’s energy sector.

“It is easy to say but difficult and expensive to exit the agreement in the energy sector,” she said while addressing a programme held at the BIAM auditorium in Dhaka on Wednesday.

The government had to approach an international forum to cancel a deal with Naiko, he said, adding although it was challenging, the government took on the task, but the issue is still under review.

Referring to the calls from many speakers during the program to cancel certain deals and projects initiated by the ousted government, she said the previous administration had reached many imbalanced agreements in the power sector, which now pose a burden on the current government.

Taking part in the programme, M. Tamim, former caretaker government’s special assistant on energy, said cancelling a single project would require a penalty of $8 to $12 billion dollars and it is the nature of the agreement.

Many of these contracts are long-term and attempting to cancel the deals before expiration of the terms involves legal complications, in addition to financial penalties, he said.