http://www.newagebd.com/2010/mar/11/busi.html#3
Separate company planned for creating power and energy fund
Staff Correspondent
The government may form a separate company to manage a proposed special fund of Tk 2,500 crore to be raised from public and private sectors for investing in power and energy projects, said officials concerned.
The relevant technical committee recommended formation of such a company at a meeting presided over by the prime minister’s energy adviser, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, at the power and energy ministry on Wednesday.
Ziaul Hasan Siddique, the Bangladesh Bank deputy governor and head of the committee, made a presentation on the proposed fund at the meeting.
Earlier in October, 2009 the government formed the committee comprising officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Dhaka Stock Exchange, Petrobangla, Power Development Board and private and public commercial banks and non-banking financial institutions. It has been assigned to make recommendations on how a separate fund could be floated for power and energy projects.
The committee recommended formation of a separate company titled ‘Bangladesh Energy and Power Investment Fund’ to deal with the mattes of raising funds.
It also recommended raising funds from the government’s public-private partnership fund and also from the gas development fund for the company.
The committee has been asked to make more recommendations on the company structure and the sharing of profit, the power secretary, Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad, told New Age.
He, however, said the size of the fund was yet to be finalised.
He said that once the committee submitted its recommendations by April, they would present the details of floating a special power and energy fund before the finance minister, Abul Maal Abdul Muhith.
‘Approval by the cabinet will be required for floating such fund under a company,’ he said.
The government wants to install power plants with around 7000MW of capacity in next few years. Around $7 billion investment will be needed for the purpose.
