Russia disburses loan tranche for Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project
Asif Showkat Kallol || BusinessInsider
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The government has disbursed Tk 402 crore for the ongoing Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project from its revenue budget during the expiring 2021-22 fiscal year following the release of the Russian Federation loan.
An official of the Finance Division of the finance ministry said the government cannot disburse money from its revenue budget until it receives a loan tranche.
The revenue fund of the government could not be released because the last date of disbursement of the state fund is 22 June, an official of the Finance Division said.
The Finance Division last week disbursed the fund as part of the government’s third and fourth installments for the construction of the nuclear power plant.
The Russian Federation disbursed in the outgoing fiscal year a sum of Tk 13,352.5 crore recently despite Western sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine war, as most of the funding of this mega project is being sourced by Russia, officials concerned in the Finance Division said.
It is not clear, however, how the Russian loan could sneak into Bangladesh without SWIFT international payment system authorisation as well as with the restrictions hanging on the Russian central bank’s international reserves.
In the outgoing fiscal year’s revised budget, a total of Tk 14,836 crore was sanctioned for the country’s largest infrastructure project for FY22, down from Tk 18,426 crore originally planned.
In the FY23 fiscal year budget, the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant project received the highest Annual Development Program (ADP) allocation of around Tk 13,396 crore.
The project cost has been estimated at Tk 113,092 crore. Russia is providing Tk 91,040 crore as credit while the rest is being provided by the government.
The government plans to commission the 1,200-MW Rooppur unit-one by 2023, and the 1,200-MW Rooppur unit-two by 2024, respectively. It has planned to load the first nuclear fuel to unit one in February 2023, and six months later to unit two to initiate operations of the plant.
