India seeks new charge on electricity exports to Bangladesh

Read the full article here.

Bangladesh regularly imports electricity from India. India has now sought to impose a new charge on the electricity it exports to Bangladesh, demanding 0.005 Indian rupees per unit. If the charge is added, the cost of imported electricity will increase.

However, delays in reaching an agreement over the charge could disrupt electricity imports from India.

The Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources has sought the Finance Ministry’s opinion on signing a new agreement. In a letter sent to the Finance Division on 18 August, the Power Division said a Settlement Nodal Agency (SNA) agreement needs to be signed between the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd (NVVN), an Indian state-owned company.

Any delay in signing the agreement could create complications in importing 1,160 megawatts of electricity through NVVN, it said.

Officials from the Power Division and BPDB said the SNA charge is not part of the price of electricity; rather, it covers the cost of grid operations and settlement of cross-border electricity transactions. As a result, the additional cost will not be significant, they said.

Source: Wikipedia