In early May, Adani Power's Chief Financial Officer Dilip Jha disclosed that Bangladesh owes approximately $0.9 billion for electricity supplied from the 1,600 MW Godda Plant in India's Jharkhand state. This follows a $1.2 billion payment made to Adani just last November. By June, the outstanding amount is projected to reach $1.3 billion, once again placing considerable pressure on the country's foreign currency reserves and raising serious questions about the wisdom of the deal.
One reason why the dues are mounting so quickly is the steep late payment fee, which reportedly stood at $136 million as of May 2025, accruing at an interest rate of 2.0 per cent per month. That's nearly 27 per cent annually, making it a penalty five times higher than typical global borrowing costs. With reserves already depleted to just over $20 billion following recent international payments, it is getting increasingly difficult for Bangladesh to sustain such costly terms.
The core issue, however, lies in the inflated cost of electricity itself. In fiscal year 2023-24, Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) paid an average of Tk 14.87 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to Adani, totalling over Tk 121 billion or around $1.0 billion. In contrast, other Indian suppliers charged significantly lower prices. NVVN Ltd charged around Tk 8.07 per kWh, Sembcorp Energy India Ltd Tk 10.42 and PTC India Ltd Tk 9.28. This puts Adani's tariff at least 30 per cent higher than comparable suppliers. The discrepancy becomes even more pronounced when compared to domestic projects such as the 1,200 MW Matarbari Coal-Fired Power Plant in Cox's Bazar, which has agreed to sell power to BPDB at just Tk 8.45 per kWh.