New Delhi: A review committee formed by the Bangladeshi interim government Sunday recommended a reassessment and review of a number of energy deals signed during Sheikh Hasina’s regime, including deals with the Adani group.
The news comes just days after senior executives from the Indian conglomerate, including Gautam Adani, were indicted by the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an alleged bribery scheme.
“The National Review Committee of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources has recommended the appointment of a reputed law and investigative firm to assist in the review of major power generation contracts during Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic regime from 2009 to 2024,” said a statement issued by Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser of the interim government of Bangladesh.
One of the deals under the scanner by the review committee includes the Adani Power Jharkhand Limited (APJL)’s Godda power plant. In 2017, the Adani group signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) to supply 1,496 MW net capacity power from the Godda power plant in Jharkhand to the South Asian country. The PPA was for 25 years.
The power plant became fully operational in July 2023. It took about three and a half years for the Indian conglomerate to build the plant according to its own statements. The other plants under the scanner in Dhaka include one built by a Chinese company and others by firms considered close to Sheikh Hasina’s regime.
Hasina, the former prime minister of Bangladesh, was ousted on 5 August, 2024, following months of student-led protests against the quota for families of the veterans of the 1971 Liberation War. Hasina fled the country and remains in India, as reported by ThePrint earlier.
The statement from Yunus’s office comes just days after Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Cyril Cabanes, an executive from Azure Power Limited, were amongst the officials charged by both the US DOJ and the SEC for an alleged bribery scheme to close renewable energy projects deals across India.
“According to the SEC’s complaint, Gautam and Sagar Adani orchestrated a bribery scheme that involved paying or promising to pay the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to Indian government officials to secure their commitment to purchase energy at above-market rates that would benefit Adani green and Azure Power,” said the SEC in its statement last Wednesday.
Right after the SEC announcement, the group’s contracts in Kenya worth nearly $3 billion were cancelled by the Kenyan government. Subsequently its project in Bangladesh has now come under the scanner.
Earlier this month, Adani Power had cut its supply to Bangladesh by over 60 percent due to a dispute on payments. According to reports, nearly $800 million worth of dues are owed to the company by the Bangladeshi government. Dhaka has opened a letter of credit for $170 million to accelerate payments to Adani, according to media reports.
The power supplied by the Adani group accounts for a little less than 10 percent of Bangladesh’s power requirement. The northern region of the country is more dependent on the power from the Godda power plant than the Southern region, as reported by ThePrint earlier.
The plant is the only one in India that is exclusively contracted to exporting power. However, in August the Indian government modified its export rules to allow exporters to also sell power domestically in specific instances—an amendment crucial to allowing the Adani group’s Jharkhand power plant to potentially sell power to the Indian market.
However, the power plant is yet to be connected to India’s domestic grid, as reported by ThePrint.
Furthermore, right after the announcement of reviewing power deals, the Chief Adviser of Bangladesh also put out a statement calling for more investment in the country by Chinese businesses, following the elections in the US.
The Executive Chairman of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun made the appeal in an open letter to Chinese investors, urging them to look to invest in the country as Chinese companies face the potential for increased tariffs from the incoming Trump administration.
Also read: Indicted by US, sentenced by the market. Damage to Adani this time will be deeper, longer lasting
LOL…The beggars of bangladesh , who have not even cleared the peding bills of adani want to review