Matarbari Power Station: Purchase of coal at increased price, additional cost of Tk. 916 crore 44 lakh

# Purchase of coal at a higher price than the market price
# per ton is estimated to be 21.82 dollars more than the current market price

Cox’s Bazar’s Matarbari thermal power plant, the country’s largest and most expensive coal-based power station, has been accused of buying coal at high prices. And the government is going to spend an additional 916 crore 44 lakh taka. According to research, Meghna Group has got the job of supplying coal to this power plant. A consortium of Meghna Group company Unique Cement Industry Limited and India’s Aditya Birla Global Trading Company Pte. It has been alleged that the government is going to spend a huge amount of money due to ordering this company to purchase coal at a higher rate than the market price.
According to the relevant sources, the proposed coal supply to the power plant must be of ICI-3 grade. According to the Indonesian Coal Index (ICI) report, on October 18, the market price of ICI-3 grade coal was USD 73.25 per metric ton and the transportation cost of coal was USD 10.80 per metric ton as calculated by the Tender Evaluation Committee (TEC). As such, the price of coal per ton on October 18, including transportation costs, was 84.05 US dollars. But Coal Power Generation Company (CPGCBL), the government body implementing Matarbari power plant, issued NOA in favor of Aditya Birla Consortium at the rate of USD 105.87 per tonne of coal through corrupt activities as before. Which is estimated to be 21.82 US dollars more than the current price of coal per ton. As such, the government will spend 916 crore 44 lakh taka to buy 35 lakh tonnes of coal.
Managing Director (Additional Charge) of CPGCBL. Nazmul Haque said, “Coal price determination is not such an easy calculation. Along with this there is vehicle cost. This price of coal is fixed at the tender price. It has been doing OTM (Open Tender Method), not DPM (Direct Purchase Method).”
It is known that on November 15, 2023, an international tender was called for the supply of 9.6 million tons of coal to Matarbari power plant for three years. As the tender was related to purchase of coal, the technical criteria part of the original tender mentioned the condition of import experience of ‘coal’. But in order to give illegal advantage to the consortium of Meghna Group and India’s Aditya Birla Group, the corrupt officials of the Hasina government changed the condition of ‘coal import experience’ to ‘coal or iron, fertiliser, chemical, cement, food grain import experience’ through four consecutive amendments in the technical criteria part of the tender. are included as qualifications.
Meanwhile, on February 8, a total of four organizations including India’s Aditya Birla Consortium participated in the tender, out of which three organizations were excluded as ‘technically non-responsive’ and India’s Aditya Catya Consortium was declared technically responsive on May 1 as the only organization. After this, on May 8, the Tender Evaluation Committee opened the financial proposal of Aditya Catia Consortium and proposed a supply price of USD 108.87 per ton of coal. The tender evaluation committee evaluated the financial proposal of Aditya Birla Consortium and said, “The said price is significantly high (significantly high) and therefore not acceptable for a long-term contract for supply of 9.6 million tonnes of coal” and decided that the proposed price is not acceptable. Later, CPGCBL authorities did not issue NOA in favor of Aditya Birla Consortium and the company filed a complaint under Rule 57(5) and 57(7) of Public Procurement Rules 2008 on July 1 and July 8. But neither the CPGCBL nor the Ministry took any action on their complaints within the time limit stipulated in the Public Procurement Rules. After that, Aditya Catia Consortium did not file any appeal in the review panel or any ret case in the High Court within the stipulated time as per Rule 57(10) of Public Procurement Rules 2008. After the financial proposal of Aditya Birla Consortium was rejected, they had no further opportunity to consider the tender or proposal of Aditya Birla Consortium as per the Public Procurement Rules as they did not take any legal action. But despite this, on October 17, CPGCBL issued an order to supply 3.5 million tonnes of coal to Aditya Katiya Consortium at the rate of USD 105.87 in a completely illegal manner. The top media of the country have already consistently published reports on the irregularities and corruption and conspiratorial activities of the CPGCBL board and the ministry regarding the coal purchase tender.
The ministry and CPGCBL officials hastily and illegally issued NOA to Aditya Birla Consortium considering the necessity of importing coal for power generation. However, Public Procurement Act 2006 and Public Procurement Rules 2008 have specific provisions (Section 68 and Rule 74) to meet temporary demand through direct purchase of coal for urgent needs.
In this situation, it is necessary to cancel the NOA given for the purchase of coal in order to prevent corrupt activities in the power and fuel sector and to protect the country from huge financial losses, experts related to the energy sector have said.