‘It’s initial equity to be Tk 16 cr’
The decision came at the first board meeting of the BIFPCL on April 20, official sources said.
Dhaka and New Delhi last year set up the BIFPCL, a special purpose company, to implement the Rampal power project. The new company was registered here with the Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms.
The BIFPCL board is a 6-member one in which three members, including its chairman representing the Bangladesh side, while the remaining three members, including its managing director, representing the Indian side.
A top official at the Power Division informed that the first board meeting of the BIFPCL decided to take initially US$ 1 million (equivalent to Tk 8 crore) each from Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) and Indian National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).
Both the state-owned companies of the two nations are the official sponsors of the BIFPCL.
“About Tk 16 crore will be the initial start-up capital for the joint-venture company. But it’s yet not decided as to how much would the total paid-up capital of the company,” said the official requesting anonymity as he is not officially authoriaed to speak on the issue.
He, however, said that so far an agreement has been made between Dhaka and New Delhi that the joint venture company’s share will have 50:50 equity ratio between the two nations while the project will be implemented on a 30:70 equity: debt basis. That means, Dhaka and Delhi will need to provide 30 percent fund of the total project and mobilise the rest 70 percent of the required fund from international sources.
Officials said the total cost of the Rampal project is yet to be ascertained. After assessment of the project cost, both sides will be asked to provide the required equity fund of the project. But many officials believe the project will require not less than US$ 1.5 billion.
The official said the new BIFPCL will start its functioning through setting up a new office in Dhaka and preparing an organogram to start manpower recruitment.
Alongside, he said, the company will prepare the other documents for appointing an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contractor for the proposed power plant and other documents for seeking international funding for the project.
