CaPtAiN_pLaNeT
SENIOR MEMBER
WB Concern over Bangladesh’s Expenditure of Electricity Buying
Saturday, 11.06.2010, 08:25am (GMT)
Dhaka: The multilateral lending agency World Bank has expressed its concern over higher expenditure of the Bangladesh government to buy electricity from rental power plants and import fuel. The burden may restrict the country’s economic growth in the range between 6.1 percent and 6.3 percent.
World Bank organised a programme to explain the state of the Bangladesh economy and outlook for FY11 at its office on Nov 3).
Sanjay Kathuria, lead country economist of WB, in his presentation said in FY11, additional fiscal cost for the rental power will be ranged between Tk 52 billion and Tk 56 billion, which is about 0.6 per cent or 0.7 per cent of the GDP.
The additional fuel import bill can be between $300 million and $350 million, he said.The government has approved 28 rental power plants to provide electricity on emergency basis and those will be run by diesel and furnace oil.
The main challenge for the government is to ensure higher leverage over the fiscal costs that it will have to incur in buying electricity from the rental plants, Sanjay said.
The lead economist feared that overall power supply might not still be improved if existing plants suffer frequent disruptions.Sanjay said: “Economic growth is likely to pick up in the current fiscal from 6.1 per cent to 6.3 per cent, but there remain some significant downside risks”.The risks are slower energy delivery, real exchange rate rising, remittance decline and fragile global recovery, he said. However, the government has projected the growth rate at 6.7 per cent for the current fiscal.
Saturday, 11.06.2010, 08:25am (GMT)
Dhaka: The multilateral lending agency World Bank has expressed its concern over higher expenditure of the Bangladesh government to buy electricity from rental power plants and import fuel. The burden may restrict the country’s economic growth in the range between 6.1 percent and 6.3 percent.
World Bank organised a programme to explain the state of the Bangladesh economy and outlook for FY11 at its office on Nov 3).
Sanjay Kathuria, lead country economist of WB, in his presentation said in FY11, additional fiscal cost for the rental power will be ranged between Tk 52 billion and Tk 56 billion, which is about 0.6 per cent or 0.7 per cent of the GDP.
The additional fuel import bill can be between $300 million and $350 million, he said.The government has approved 28 rental power plants to provide electricity on emergency basis and those will be run by diesel and furnace oil.
The main challenge for the government is to ensure higher leverage over the fiscal costs that it will have to incur in buying electricity from the rental plants, Sanjay said.
The lead economist feared that overall power supply might not still be improved if existing plants suffer frequent disruptions.Sanjay said: “Economic growth is likely to pick up in the current fiscal from 6.1 per cent to 6.3 per cent, but there remain some significant downside risks”.The risks are slower energy delivery, real exchange rate rising, remittance decline and fragile global recovery, he said. However, the government has projected the growth rate at 6.7 per cent for the current fiscal.