Shawdesh Desk:

The government has promulgated an ordinance repealing the controversial energy law called ‘Quick enhancement of electricity and energy supply act, 2010’.

A gazette notification was issued on Saturday regarding the promulgation of the ordinance passed on November 28. The repeal ordinance was to be immediately effective.

The gazette stated that actions taken under the 2010 law would be considered legally done while activities undergoing by the power of the law would continue and be completed as if it had not been repealed.

However, the gazette noted that the government for public interest can evaluate any activities taken under the law and take any step necessary regarding the activities.

Hours before the gazette was made available, power, energy and mineral resources adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan had said that they had awaited the full verdict of the High Court declaring some sections of the law unconstitutional to pass the ordinance.

Fouzul was speaking at a discussion on transition to renewable energy at the Economic Reporters’ Forum on Saturday morning.

Some of the speakers at the discussion urged the government to reconsider for the sake of foreign investment before cancelling some of the renewable energy projects that signed letter of intent.

‘There is no scope of considering the matter when the law does not exist anymore,’ said the energy adviser, iterating his government’s commitment to ensure competitive bidding in all businesses.

‘Business will no longer be reserved for ministers’ relatives or those who can hand secretaries large sums.  Every citizen has right to doing business,’ he said.

A small change in the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation law regarding business tenders had opened the import of fuel to a larger number of businesses, he said, adding that it had ensured an import deal that cost 35 per cent less than deals done under the past government.

In the past 14 years until Hasina was overthrown on August 5, the Awami League government made almost all power and energy deals behind the scene under the protection of the law.

The law had handed unprecedented power to the minister of power and energy, which was Hasina herself, enabling her to award power and energy deals without any tender while ensuring that her decisions could not be challenged in any court of law.

The ‘Quick enhancement of electricity and energy supply act, 2010’, enacted on October 12 in 2010, had come to be known as the indemnity law. Its initial tenure was for two years, later to be extended four times—in 2012, the law was given two years’ extension, followed by four year’s extension awarded in 2014, three years extension in 2018, and five years extension in 2021 until 2026.

Ignoring widespread demands from energy and legal experts for throwing it out, the government, wielding the law, oversaw unabated fossil fuel expansion at exorbitant prices further facilitating corruption and inefficiency. It created the scope for channeling a huge amount of public money into private pockets by establishing a power system suffering from 50 per cent overcapacity.

The law allows awarding any companies without tender any power and energy projects, including the import of natural gas, coal, liquefied natural gas and petroleum products, as well as the extraction of mineral resources. The law also covers electricity generation, transmission and distribution projects.

In Section 9, the law states that the legality of any activity or measure or order taken or given under it cannot be challenged in any court of law.

No legal action can be taken against any employees and officials who have operated under the law or its subordinate rules or any general or special orders given under it, states Section 10 of the law, considering all actions done under it performed in good faith.

After taking permission from the minister, Subsection 2 of Section 6 states that a special committee can contact and negotiate with a limited number of parties or a single party to process any procurement or investment proposals in the power and energy sector.

The special committee used to comprise, as usually, top officials of the energy ministry and the state-owned power end energy entities.

Under the law, the government indiscriminately approved projects, increasing the installed power generation capacity to over 28,000MW in June this year from less than 5,000MW in 2009.

On November 14, the High Court invalidated two sections of the law.