Bangladesh has asked for a tax rebate in importing power from the neighboring India. The proposal from the Bangladeshi side of the joint working group came about in a meeting that held on Wednesday.
According to the recent Indian policy an extra clause was added saying something like- any neighboring nation has to pay a 15 percent tax in importing power from the country, which was absent in the recent past policy. Ajay Kumar Valla, the energy secretary of India has been visiting Bangladesh heading a delegation and he was to attend in meetings of law working group and steering committee. One part of the delegation had a meeting on Wednesday with the working group and another part of the delegation sat at a board meeting of the Bangladesh India Friendship Company which is implementing the Rampal power plant.
After the meeting of working group Powercell Director General Mohammad Hossain said, “we’ve raised the issue of rebating tax on importing power from India and they said that the issue would be discussed in the steering committee’s meeting”. Besides, he added that, different issues related to Bangladesh’s power sector were also discussed at the meeting.
Meeting sources said that, Bangladesh is planning to import more power from India and other neighboring countries including Nepal, Bhutan and these topics were discussed at the meeting.
Besides, the progress report of the Rampal power plant were justified and discussed at the meeting. Meeting sources said that, the Indian contractor firm has started their work; piling has started at the Rampal project site.
Source : Energy Bangla
