BD to request India to review guideline

Bangladesh will request its Indian counterpart to review the cross-border trade of electricity guideline (India) to keep Bangladesh's dream to import 4,500 MW of electricity for meeting country's growing demand.
It will also express worries over new regulations adopted by the Indian government which imposed supplementary duties and other financial liabilities on electricity exports from India that will increase the electricity import cost of Bangladesh in future.
"We will discuss the issues with our Indian counterpart in upcoming Joint Steering Committee (JSC) meeting that will be held on June 21 to 22 here," Power Division Secretary Dr. Ahmad Kaikaus told the Daily Observer on Tuesday.
Bangladesh has already exempted all supplementary duties and other duties from Indian companies that are doing business here. Indian companies are working here for implementing a series of power projects including the Indian state-owned NTPC and private entities like Reliance Power Ltd and Shapoorji Pallonji Infrastructure Capital Company Ltd.
According to Bangladesh Power Development Board, Bangladesh is now importing 640MW of electricity from India with tariff at Tk 4.92 per unit  on an average and set to import additional 500MW electricity soon. If the Indian authority will not review the new regulation and guideline of electricity export than the cost of power import will go up, experts said.
"In the 11th JSC meeting, the Indian side has expressed that Central Energy Regulatory Commission of India advised for framing new regulations for smooth power trading among the SAARC nations," an official said.
He said fresh 250MW and 500MW power import could be made by Dhaka as per new regulations. "So we need the review as soon as possible."
"Dhaka is negotiating to import 1600MW of electricity from Adani Group-sponsored power project at Jharkhand province of India. The project might also be affected as the electricity tariff would jump by over Tk 8 per unit due to the new regulations adopted by India," he added.
 "We need approval of 'open access' to the Indian grid for long-term power import by June 2018," Power Cell DG Mohammad Hossain said.
"We have a plan to import 4500MW of electricity from India, Nepal and Bhutan by 2030�the guideline might be troubled to implement it," he said.
Besides, the government has also a plan to export surplus generation of electricity in seven sisters of India by 2040. But, it might also be hampered due to the guideline. Then, the government has a target to generate 60,000MW of electricity.                          
The Indian government launched the 'Guidelines on Cross-Border Trade of Electricity' on December 5, 2016 in a bid to regulate its electricity trade with its neighbours- Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar.
Bangladesh is likely to fail to tap the hydro-electricity potentials of Bhutan and Nepal as the Indian power regulatory body has adopted a new cross-border power trade guideline that allows only bilateral deal for importing power, experts observed.