Bangladesh's decision to buy electricity from Nepal at Rs 9 per unit

After the meeting, Chief Secretary Mohbub Hussain Khan informed the journalists that 15 proposals including electricity import from Nepal have been approved. 'Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) will import 40 megawatts of electricity from Nepal,' said Secretary Khan, 'electricity import will start only after a tripartite agreement between NTPC Electricity Trading Corporation of India (NVVN), Nepal Electricity Authority and BPDB.'

According to the media of Bangladesh, the Cabinet has approved the proposal to import electricity at 8.17 taka (about 9 rupees) per unit including transmission charges. Khan also said that India should pay a fee of Rs 0.059 per unit for using Indian transmission lines while importing electricity from Nepal. He said that the fee of 'wheeling charge' to be paid for using India's transmission line has not been decided yet. Almost 6 years after the agreement on energy cooperation between Nepal and Bangladesh, electricity export is about to take its final shape.

Nepal is going to get a price of around 9 rupees per unit of electricity. Executive Director of Nepal Electricity Authority Kulman Ghising said that only verbal information has been received about the price of 40 MW of electricity to be exported from Nepal being approved by the Bangladesh government. "The price of electricity purchase and sale between Nepal and Bangladesh has been approved," he said Ghising said that the export will start. He understands that it will take time as the power export projects will be approved by the Ministry of Energy through the Central Authority of India. Due to this, he said, it will take another one and a half months to complete the process of Bangladesh electricity export. However, before that, there will be a bilateral agreement between Nepal and Bangladesh regarding the price of electricity purchase and sale, Executive Director Ghising said.

Although the CCGP has approved, the date of the agreement between Nepal and Bangladesh for electricity trade has not been fixed. Sushil Chandra Tiwari, Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, said that they are requesting for a bilateral electricity trade agreement before the energy secretary level and joint secretary level meetings to be held on June 8 and 9. 'The meeting is scheduled to be held on June 8 and 9,' said Tiwari, 'before the said meeting, information has been received informally that the Nepal-Bangladesh electricity trade agreement will be finalized.' Tiwari said that the aim is to export electricity during the rainy season. It depends on how fast the tripartite agreement is. If a bilateral agreement is reached in the meeting of June 8 and 9, a tripartite agreement will be reached by the third week of June,' he said, and the export will begin. According to Tiwari, the tripartite agreement will include expenses for using India's infrastructure. Chief Secretary Khan has said that there is a possibility that the bilateral agreement can be reached during the possible visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Nepal. However, nothing has been decided about Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit.

The Economic Affairs Committee of the Cabinet of Bangladesh approved in principle the proposal to import 40 megawatts of electricity from Nepal on December 20. Accordingly, Bangladesh had sent a letter to Nepal to send a proposal for sale by prioritizing the price. The authority sent the sale proposal in the second week of January.

Then there was a meeting between the Authority's team and the Bid Evaluation Committee under the Bangladesh Power Development Board in Dhaka on February 10. Although the price was discussed in the meeting, it was not decided. No agreement was reached in the meeting after Nepal took a stand that it would not sell to India at a lower price than it was sold to. But later, in the bilateral discussion held during the SAARC energy secretary-level meeting organized by the World Bank in Singapore, Bangladesh agreed to purchase electricity at the price offered by Nepal. At that time, there was an agreement to sell electricity to Bangladesh at the price given to India under the mid-term agreement.

According to the proposal prepared by the authority, there will be an agreement with Bangladesh for the sale of electricity for 5 years. Nepal's 40 MW of electricity will be exported to Bangladesh through the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur 400 KV international transmission line through India's Bahrampur-Veramara transmission line. It is proposed to export electricity within June 15 to November 15 every year. According to the authority, Bangladesh will pay the fare for using the Indian transmission line. The authority will get the price for sale of electricity at Muzaffarpur point in India. According to the authority, the fee to be paid to India's NVNN and about 3 percent of the leakage will be borne by Bangladesh.

In August last year, the Nepal-Bangladesh secretary-level meeting agreed to take up to 50 megawatts of electricity from Nepal in the first phase. At that time, Nepal Electricity Authority, Bangladesh Power Development Board, NTPC Electricity Trading Corporation agreed to request India for a tripartite electricity purchase and sale agreement to export electricity through the high capacity dedicated transmission line in Veramara, Bangladesh. It has already been agreed to use the Indian grid.

Bangladesh has proposed more cooperation in the hydropower sector in addition to importing 40 MW. At the same time, in the secretary-level meeting held in August 2079, a preliminary agreement was reached to build the Sunkoshi third project with a capacity of 683 megawatts as a joint investment of Nepal-Bangladesh.

Then in the first week of May 2080, in the Nepal-Bangladesh secretary-level meeting held in Patuakhali, Bangladesh, it was agreed to sign a joint venture agreement between the authority and BPDP within 6 months for the construction of Sunkoshi third project. Likewise, the Indian company GMR has said that it will also sell 500 MW of electricity produced from Upper Karnali with a capacity of 900 MW to Bangladesh.