When the lop-sided deal with Adani Power was signed, a newly inked deal with the controversial S Alam Group’s power plant was used as the pricing benchmark -- even though that contract’s pricing structure was itself unusually expensive and riddled with contractual anomalies.

Inflated capacity charges in power sector deals have been costing Bangladesh up to $1.5 billion a year, according to the national committee formed to review unsolicited power contracts signed during the Awami League regime.

Bangladesh’s power sector was long dominated by political influence, muscle power, and artificial crises designed to benefit a handful of companies during the deposed Awami League regime, said KM Rezaul Hasanat David, president of the Bangladesh Independent Power Producers’ Association (BIPPA).

In the 15-plus years of the last government, the energy and power sectors of Bangladesh have been all but destroyed.