BBA's operational expenditure exceeds revenue receipt by Tk 1.27b in FY '13
The operational expenditure of the Bangladesh Bridge Authority (BBA) exceeded its revenue receipt by Tk 1.27 billion in the outgoing fiscal, 2012-13.
It did otherwise earn operational surplus in its non-development or current expenditure all throughout the period of its operations since inception, the sources said.
The BBA officials claimed that it suffered the loss as it had carried out repair works at the Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge and the Meghna Bridge, in the outgoing fiscal. The works cost over Tk 2.0 billion.
But sources in the Authority said low rate of toll collection, irregularities in collecting toll and a large amount of debt servicing burden are the other reasons for which it incurred the loss in the outgoing fiscal.
"The BBA had to spend over Tk 2.10 billion to repair the Bangabandhu Bridge and the Meghna Bridge in fiscal years (FYs), 2011-12 and 2012-03 for which the Authority suffered the loss in its non-development budget," Md. Shamsuzzaman, Additional Director (Finance and Accounts) of the BBA said.
He said the Authority may return to the position of earning surpluses in the forthcoming fiscal.
When asked, a high official of the BBA denied the allegation of misappropriation in toll collection.
The BBA fetched Tk 684 million profit in fiscal 2011-12, Tk 1.16 billion in fiscal 2010-11, Tk 970 million in fiscal 2009-10, Tk 1.83 billion in fiscal 2008-09 fiscal and Tk 1.84 billion in fiscal 2007-08.
In 2006, a team of experts detected numerous cracks on the Bangabandhu Bridge and asked the authorities to urgently fix those to ensure its safety.
The life-span and load-carrying capacity of the country's existing longest Bangabandhu Bridge had been compromised, as successive governments failed to mend properly the repair-cracks in it, according to experts and government officials.
Besides, a fund of Tk 1.50 billion in the forms of repayment of the outstanding principal amount of loans and also servicing interest-related debt obligations to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) will require to be paid until 3034 the outgoing fiscal such external debt servicing payments will require to be made up to the year, 2034, to pay off the outstanding debts for the bridge, said the BBA authorities.
It will take at least 23 years more to clear the liabilities that the country owes to the multilateral lending agencies which gave loans for constructing the bridge across the Jamuna river.
The ADB and the WB provided more than 45 per cent of its construction cost. The remaining amount of the fund was funded by the government of Bangladesh (GoB) and also with funds by donors like Japan.
Meanwhile, the government is now set to raise the toll rates for the users of the bridge by 40 per cent on an average, after a gap of 13 years, in line with suggestions of the lenders, the officials of the ministry of communications (MoC) indicated.
They said they have already obtained the consent of the ministry of finance (MoF) for the purpose.
A high official of the ministry said it is going to seek the approval of the cabinet committee for fixing the new toll rates soon.
On an average, 15,000 vehicles use the bridge a day.
Commissioned in 1998, the bridge still stands as the country's largest infrastructure.
The country spent $962 million (Tk 37.45 billion as per the dollar-taka exchange rate prevailing during the period of its construction in the 1990s) to construct the rail-road bridge earlier known as Bangladesh-China Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Friendship bridge later renamed as Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge.
