Till March this year, the semi-government organisations owed Tk 743 crore and the ministries Tk 87 crore to the gas supply authorities.

In spite of frequent reminders, the defaulter government and semi-government organisations are not paying their gas bills, the energy ministry noted in a report to the finance minister.

As a result, the energy ministry cannot pay its dues to the government as well as to different international oil companies (IOC), the report noted.

Semi-government organisations under the power and energy ministry top the list of defaulters owing Tk 485 crore, followed by those under the industries ministry with around Tk 176 crore outstanding bills.

The organisations under the jute ministry owe Tk 64 crore and those under the textile ministry about Tk 15 crore to the gas suppliers.

Among the ministries, housing and public works ministry tops the defaulters' list with Tk 31.74 crore dues, followed by the home ministry with Tk 10.31 crore bills unpaid.

The health ministry owes Tk 7.73 crore, education ministry Tk 7.25 crore, defence Tk 5.58 crore, communications Tk 5.3 crore, liberation war affairs ministry Tk 5.35 crore.

The unpaid bills of other ministries range from Tk 30 lakh to Tk 2 crore.

Meanwhile, a power ministry source said different government organisations as well as private ones owe a large sum of money as electricity bills to the power ministry and many of them are not paying bills for more than a year.

Consequently, the ministry is unable to pay the bill for gas used for power generation, the source said, adding that despite taking various measures, they have failed to collect the dues.

Industries ministry sources said they have failed to pay the gas bill as they have not received their due allocation from the government.

The ministries are given allocation in the budget as per their requirement, finance ministry sources said, adding that they would ask the ministries concerned to explain the cause of their failure to pay gas bills in time.