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The Petrobangla - Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation - issued a letter Monday to the Power Development Board (PDB) to release its arrear gas bills worth around Tk 1.95 billion (Tk194.93 crore) immediately.
"The PBD owes Petrobangla a total of Tk 4.595 billion in outstanding gas bills till January 31 last", Energy and Mineral Resources Division (EMRD) Adviser Mahmudur Rahman told the FE Thursday.
He said that according to government rule, a state-owned entity cannot keep its arrear gas bills outstanding for more than three months. But it has been over five months that the PDB has left the arrears unpaid, grossly failing to meet the deadline.
"We will release one month's arrear bills within March", PDB Chairman AM Rezwan Ahmed told the FE when asked to comment on the issue.
The PDB also has a huge amount of outstanding electricity bills pending with its consumers. It has to collect the arrears from the consumers first to foot the gas bills of Petrobangla, he added.
Petrobangla Chairman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan in a letter said the outstanding gas bills of the PDB is equivalent of 5.21 months' average sales figure of Petrobangla.
The dues of Titas Gas is Tk 2.752 billion, followed by Bakhrabad Gas Systems Ltd at Tk 1.058 billion, Jalalabad Gas Systems Ltd at Tk 410 million and Pashchimanchal Gas Company Ltd at Tk 360 million from the PDB.
Such gas distribution companies are facing liquidity crisis due to the large amount of arrears accumulated with PDB, the letter said.
The companies are also unable to pay the government's supplementary duty, value added tax (VAT) and the international oil companies outstanding gas bills for the same reason, the letter added.
The dues of gas distribution companies from the PDB were Tk 3.943 billion and Tk 4.483 billion as of June 30, 2004 and June 30, 2005 respectively, which is gradually going up.
The letter said, despite insufficient gas supply, the Petrobangla is regularly sup plying gas to the PDB for meeting the increasing power demands in the peak summer season.
Petrobangla chairman urged the PDB, its main consumer, to clear the arrears of at least three months immediately.
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