Bangladesh must urgently pay $2b in dues to foreign companies
Staff Correspondent
Bangladesh must urgently pay nearly $2 billion to foreign companies, including airlines and India-based Adani Power, Governor Ahsan H Mansur has told Bloomberg in an interview.
The dues piled up during the January-August unrest that saw the ouster of Awami League (AL) regime after it’s over 16 years of autocratic rule. With the foreign exchange reserves depleting fast in the final days of the regime, the likelihood of repaying foreign loans and dues was already low.
Adani Power alone is due to receive $800 million for exporting electricity to Bangladesh from its coal-fired power plant named Godda in India’s eastern state of Jharkhand.
Central bank chief Ahsan told Bloomberg that Adani would cut off power supply if the due is not repaid soon.
However, Adani Power later claimed it is not considering cutting supplies to Bangladesh, but would be under pressure from its lenders and coal suppliers to collect the dues.
It is currently engaging with the Professor Dr Yunus-led interim government to sort out the matter.
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves were $20.5 billion at the end of July, allowing barely three months of imports, courtesy of rampant looting and money laundering by ousted Awami League leaders and the businessmen they supported.
