The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday urged Bangladesh to hold discussions with the Adani Group on any concerns it has about an agreement to supply electricity to it.
Earlier in the day, reports said that Bangladesh’s interim government was planning to examine the terms under which Indian businesses, including the Adani Group, operated there.
The Adani Group exports electricity to Bangladesh from its unit in Jharkhand’s Godda district under an agreement signed in 2017.
The reports about Bangladesh re-examining the terms for Indian businesses came two days after the Financial Times reported that the Adani Group had warned the neighbouring country that its overdue payments – amounting to more than $500 million, or over Rs 4,198.7 crore – had become unsustainable.
On Thursday, ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal at a press briefing said that the agreement between Bangladesh and the Adani Group pertained to a private project that was bound by a buyer-seller agreement between two parties.
“One party happens to be an Indian party and the other party happens to be the Bangladeshi party,” Jaiswal said. “It is for both these parties to determine what do they want out of this agreement or arrangement.”
The foreign ministry said that power authorities in Bangladesh and the Adani Group “will have to sit and sort out issues if they have in this particular engagement”.
An Adani Power spokesperson told The Indian Express on Thursday that the company had no knowledge about Dhaka reviewing the 2017 agreement.
“In the spirit of true partnership, we continue to supply power to them despite the massive outstanding owed to us,” the spokesperson said. “We are in constant engagement with the Bangladesh authorities and have requested them for early liquidation of our dues as it is making our operations unsustainable.”
Adani Group’s power exports to Bangladesh
The agreement between the Adani Group and the Bangladesh government was signed when the Awami League government headed by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was in power in Dhaka. As part of the agreement, the plant in Jharkhand’s Godda supplies 7% to 10% of Bangladesh’s base load, or the minimum amount of electricity needed to meet a particular region’s demand.
Opposition parties in India have questioned whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi was directly involved in the deal between the Adani Group and the Bangladesh government.
In Bangladesh too, Adani Power’s electricity exports have long been at the centre of controversy, with experts contending that it entails Dhaka buying power at exorbitantly high prices.
Last year, the Bangladesh Power Development Board wrote to the company seeking that the agreement be revised. While there was no official statement on the revisions sought, an unidentified official had told Bangladeshi news agency UNB that the high prices were the point of contention.
On August 5, Sheikh Hasina resigned as Bangladesh’s prime minister and fled to India amid protests seeking her ouster. Yunus took over as the head of the interim government on August 8.
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