Energy div goes tough on bill defaulters

The Energy Division of the government has instructed all six gas distribution companies to go tough on the large bill defaulters in an effort to realise the overdue bills.

In a meeting with the distribution companies on Thursday, the division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources also asked them to make a list of the consumers, who defaulted on payment of gas bills.

It has already formed a high-level committee to monitor the matter, an Energy Division official told Bangladesh.

According to data with Energy Division, various government bodies and private organisations owe around Tk 10,000 crore to the gas distribution companies – about 2,200 crore to Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Co Ltd alone.

The gas distribution companies are struggling to realise the arrears.

Officials concerned said the ministry had not taken any initiative like this to collect gas bills before and that the bill collection has stopped now due to COVID-19.

Energy division officials say gas is being used because factories are running. And as factories are running, there is no reason not to pay the bills.

Earlier, State Minister for Power and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said it was unbelievable that such a huge amount of bills remain outstanding. Being strict in bill collection creates pressure in many ways. If this continues, the distribution companies will go bankrupt.

Ministry sources said that various government and private organizations generate electricity with gas bought from Petrobangla. Petrobangla also imports liquefied natural gas (LNG) due to the gas crisis in the country. Regular LNG prices have to be paid whether the gas bill is collected in the country or not. In such a situation, Petrobangla is in deep crisis.

Md. Anisur Rahman, Senior Secretary of Energy and Mineral Resources Division issued a directive for all gas distribution companies on Thursday stating that all gas distribution companies should prepare a list of defaulting customers and send it to the energy division as soon as possible.

A committee comprising Additional Secretary (Operations), Additional Secretary (Development) of energy division and Petrobangla Chairman will look into the matter of recovery of arrears, and disconnection, if the arrears are not paid. The committee will also oversee the removal of illegal gas connections and gas pipelines.

Recently, a meeting was held in the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources to collect the outstanding gas and electricity bills. At that meeting, it was decided to disconnect services lines if the gas and electricity bills were not paid within a stipulated time.

The distribution companies claim that no one has been able to achieve collecting the pending bills because of the crisis due to coronavirus. The factory owners are not paying the bills, but they are putting pressure on them when they want to collect the bills. This is not going to be done as there is a fear that the export process will be disrupted if lines are disconnected from the particular bill defaulting industries.

According to the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, there was around Tk 9,394 crore in bills which remain pending with the customers of various gas distribution companies under Petrobangla till last October.

Meanwhile, a concerned official of the ministry said that many private industrial entrepreneurs are delaying to pay their outstanding gas bills due to various reasons. Although the government has announced the opportunity to pay their bills in installments, the response has not been as expected. Many of the traders are politically influential and so they are not able to exert pressure to realize the pending bills.

Out of the outstanding gas bill of Tk 9,394 crore, around Tk 2,378 crore is in arrears with public and private power plants. Of this, the arrears of government power plants are Tk 1,097 crore and private arrears are Tk 1,281 crore. On the other hand, the total arrears stand around taka 65 crore for public captive power plants, and private captive owners are in arrears of Tk 1,461 crore.

Among the public and private fertilizer factories, the gas bill arrears are around Tk 227 crore, while the industrial arrears are around Tk 1,656 crore. Of this, Tk 43 crore is arrears to state-owned factories and Tk 1,611 crore is arrears to industrialists.

Among the commercial sector establishments, hotels and restaurants are in arrears of Tk 21 crore and small and cottage industries are in arrears of Tk 77 crore. The arrears in the residential sector are Tk 2,642 crore.

Besides, the CNG gas bill arrears in the CNG sector are Tk 854 crore and in the tea garden arrears are around Tk 9 crore.

According to the report of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited for the 2019-20 fiscal year, Titas sold gas worth Tk 16,950.41 crore in the last fiscal year. On the other hand, they have collected taka 15 thousand 182 crore 32 lakh. As a result, the company has arrears of Tk 1,768 crore in just one financial year.

In the previous financial year (2018-19), Titas gas sold gas worth Tk 13 thousand 622 crore. In contrast, the bill was in arrears of taka 546 crore 87 lakh. At present, the total outstanding bills of the company are around Tk 2,200 crore.

Some 1,203 cases are pending before the court for the purpose of recovery of these arrears bills. Titas has filed 168 more cases before the court in the 2019-20 financial year. In the last financial year, 148 of these cases were disposed of through which Titas collected Tk 98.83 crore from the customers.