The power and energy ministry of the government Thursday finally made a move to create a mega fund for development of the country's power-energy sector that had been experiencing cash crunch for long, reports UNB.

At a meeting, the power and energy ministry decided to move for the titanic fund under which a gas sector development (GSD) fund would also be created first through raising gas prices.

The estimation of the whole mega-fund raising scheme was yet to be finalised, but the sector needed billions of dollars in investment to meet its demand, said Prime Minister's Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury Bir Bikram, who presided over the meeting.

Earlier, he said that the mega fund would be worth Tk 100 billion.

About the GSD fund, which would be created through raising gas prices, Energy Secretary Mohammad Mohsin told reporters that the finance ministry had finally given its concurrence for creating the fund.

He mentioned that the GSD fund was going to be formed in line with a pending appeal of the Petrobangla with Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) for raising the gas tariff.

Last year, the BERC rejected the appeal, attaching some conditions that the appeal could only be considered to raise gas price by 10-15 per cent if the Petrobangla moved to create a development fund for the sake of energy security.

Another condition tagged by the watchdog body was that the fund must be tax-free and it had to be utilised exclusively for exploration and development work for the gas sector.

Explaining the matter, Mohsin said initially National Board of Revenue (NBR) rejected the proposal moved by Petrobangla for keeping the GSD fund tax-free. But, after negotiations, now the finance ministry had given an innovative solution - that the tax must be paid. But Petrobangla would get back the payments through a budgetary support.

After the solution, now Petrobangla again moves to the BERC to allow it to raise the gas prices to create the fund.

Mohsin, however, said raising gas price was a lengthy process and it would not happen so soon.

"Because, it is absolutely the matter of the BERC to consider any appeal for raising price," he added.