Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday asked the authorities concerned to cut the electricity connections of errant consumers, said planning minister MA Mannan.
The prime minister gave the directive while approving a pre-paid meter installation project for Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council at the planning commission.
The planning minister said that the prime minister expressed disappointment as huge arrears in electricity bills were lying unpaid with public and private entities.
‘Give notices to the errant consumers as per the law. If they do not pay the arrears even after getting the notice, cut the lines,’ Mannan quoted the prime minister as saying.
Without giving any exact figure of defaulted electricity bills, the planning minister said that bills worth cores of takas had remained unrealised.
This was the prime minister’s first physical appearance in the National Economic Council meeting since March 2020.
She used to preside over the meetings virtually from the Ganabhaban during the Covid pandemic.
The planning minister said that the prime minister became emotional while talking on the Padma Bridge that had been constructed with own resources after lenders backtracked from giving loans on the allegation of corruption in tender biddings.
The bridge will be opened on June 25.
The prime minister said that the construction of the bridge became possible as the people were beside them.
Earlier, the ECNEC approved nine project proposals with an overall involvement of Tk 2,665.21 crore. Of the projects, seven are new and two are revised ones.
The revised proposals include one from the Bangladesh Bridge Authority to make an upward revision of the Dhaka–Ashulia Elevated Expressway project funded by China.
Following the revision, the new project cost now stands at Tk 17,553.04 crore from Tk 16,901.32 crore.
The tenure of the project has been extended by four years till June 2026 from June 2022 for the project.
Exim Bank of China will provide a loan worth Tk 9,192.07 crore to the project.
The government has to start debt servicing of the loan from June 2027, according to project officials.
The other revised proposal is the establishment of BNS Sher-e-Bangla in Patuakhali with an additional cost of Tk 196.73 crore.
The new cost of the project stands at Tk 1,278.32 crore from original Tk 1,0 81.50 crore.
The tenure of the project was extended for one year from the original deadline of June 2022 till June 2023.
