Delhi, New Delhi: Bangladesh has accelerated the payment of a substantial sum of more than $800 million that it owes to the Indian company Adani Power, just three days before the deadline of November 7. Because of financial problems with India’s eastern neighbor, Adani Power has reduced electricity exports to Bangladesh by more than half. Two high-ranking government officials confirmed this.
Adani Power’s 1,600 megawatt (MW) Godda facility in Jharkhand produces power that is sent to Bangladesh. According to three people with knowledge of the situation, it has set a deadline for payment because it is having trouble importing the coal needed to generate electricity.
A senior official at the Bangladesh electricity Development Board informed news agency Reuters that the Gautam Adani-owned company cut the electricity supply to Bangladesh this month from about 1,400 MW to 700–800 MW.
The officials were not authorized to speak to the media, so they spoke on condition of anonymity.
When Reuters asked Adani Power about the payment deadline, the company did not reply.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Bangladesh has been having trouble paying its bills because of the high cost of importing products and petroleum. Its problems have also been exacerbated by the political unrest that resulted in the removal of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August.
“We cleared $96 million last month, and a letter of credit has been opened for an additional $170 million this month,” Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan, the interim government of Bangladesh’s electricity and energy adviser, told Reuters.
Bangladesh was examining its contract with Adani Power last month, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke to Reuters, since the company was billing Bangladesh a rate that was about 27% higher than that of India’s other private producers.
During a quarterly earnings conference call last week, Adani Power Chief Financial Officer Dilip Kumar Jha stated that there were no problems with Bangladesh’s power delivery.
“We hope that the outstanding situation won’t worsen any further,” he stated.
On Friday, November 1, the local media reported that Adani Power Jharkhand Limited (APJL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Power, has cut off half of its power supply to Bangladesh due to unpaid payments totaling USD 846 million. The Adani facility cut supply on Thursday night, according to data from Power Grid Bangladesh PLC, according to The Daily Star newspaper.
As the 1,496 MW plant is now producing 700 MW from a single unit, Bangladesh reported a shortfall of more than 1,600 MW on the intervening nights of Thursday and Friday, according to the newspaper.
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