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The visiting delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) enquired with the country's energy regulator on Sunday about the tariff rate of power to be produced from the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) being constructed at Ishwardi, Pabna.
It wanted to know whether any power purchase agreement (PPA) has been inked between the nuclear power producer and the purchaser, officials said.
Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) officials informed the IMF delegation that Bangladesh's state-run power purchaser - Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) - is yet to sign any agreement in this regard.
As per the BERC rule, the commission only has the authority to fix the tariff of power to be generated from the plant, BERC officials informed the IMF delegation.
The IMF team, led by chief of the IMF's Asia and Pacific Division Rahul Anand, held discussions with the BERC officials as part of its negotiations on Bangladesh's request for a US $4.5 billion budgetary support, an official added.
The 2,400 megawatt RNPP project is the largest among several mega projects now being implemented in Bangladesh under a supplier's credit deal with Russia.
Rosatom State Corporation Engineering Division is the designer and general contractor of the project.
Atomstroyexport, Russian state nuclear power company Rosatom's international projects subsidiary, is the lead contractor.
Russia will provide around US$ 11.87 billion worth of loan - it has already released around $3.77 billion until June 2022 to implement the project.
The first unit (1200 MW) of the project has already achieved 70 per cent progress in physical work, and the second unit (1200 MW) achieved 53 per cent of physical work.
During the meeting, the IMF team also enquired about the tariff fixation procedure of the BERC and relevant regulations.
It also wanted to know how many times in a year the BERC has the authority to hike tariffs on energy like power and natural gas.
The team from the Washington-based lending agency also enquired about the subsidy requirement in the power and energy sector, and the procedure of providing subsidies to the state-run entities.
They also enquired about the status of different funds created by the BERC like gas development fund (GDF), energy security fund (ESF) and the process of depositing and withdrawal of money from the funds.
The IMF team, however, did not recommend anything to the BERC, a senior BERC official said.
The BERC officials, led by Chairman Md Abdul Jalil, responded to the queries of the IMF team during the meeting.