Originally posted in The Business Standard on 31 January 2023
Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) Ltd – the only state-owned power transmission firm in the country – posted a big loss in the second quarter of October to December 2022 due to the appreciation of the US dollar against the Bangladeshi taka.
During the period, the revenue of the company stood at Tk534.48 crore, which was Tk518.69 crore in the same period of the previous year.
Consequently, the company made a loss of Tk392.71 crore, which was a net profit of Tk66.33 crore one year ago.
Its per-share loss stood at Tk5.51, which was earnings per share of Tk0.93.
PGCB said in the disclosure, the earnings of the company have decreased as total expenses had increased. The main reason for the increase in expenses is foreign exchange loss.
The company underwent a difficult time as its servicing cost of foreign loans from the country’s development partners skyrocketed owing to the strong dollar.
Company Secretary Md Jahangir Azad told The Business Standard earlier that for development work, the PGCB took loans from Bangladesh’s development partners multiple times.
“According to the current exchange rate of the taka against the dollar, this loan amount is much higher than what it was last year. As a result, there has been a huge loss due to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates,” he added.