Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said on Thursday that the outstanding dues of electricity supplied through dedicated feeders and trunk lines will be collected.
The prime minister made the remark while responding to queries of lawmakers in Thursday's meeting of the House of Representatives.
Oli, however, said the amount will be collected not by shutting down the industries.
According to NEA, the industrialists owe Rs 6.65 billion in addition to a 25 per cent fine, amounting to about Rs 8.25 billion. Initially, the NEA had calculated that industrialists who consumed electricity from the dedicated feeder and trunk line owed Rs 21.3 billion. However, the arrears were revised after taking into consideration the recommendation of a commission formed by the government to address the dispute.
While a few industries have made some payments recently, many have taken a stance that they will not pay the dues unless the NEA provides them with the TOD metre data.
In response, the NEA earlier this month submitted to the Public Account Committee (PAC) a detailed record of the electricity, inducing the time of the day (TOD) Metre data, supplied to the industries through the dedicated feeders and trunk lines.
The state-owned power utility had sent around 100,000 pages of information on the TOD metre data, logbooks, billing in Ampere, and details of bills provided to industrialists to the parliamentary committee.
“The government is clear on this; the arrears will be collected without cutting off the power supply lines,” said Oli.
Oli claimed that the social media narrative which portrays Nepal Electricity Authority as the one trying to collect the tariff while the government in favour of exempting industries from paying them was false.
“There is no difference between the government and the NEA leadership,” Oli said.
On August 13, a complaint was filed against Ghising at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA), alleging him of several irregularities and requesting a thorough investigation.
The NEA had cut the power supply to six industries last month after they did not pay the tariff for the use of electricity through the dedicated feeder and trunk line.
The NEA leadership had refused to follow the PM's verbal instructions and the written directives of the Electricity Regulatory Commission for days to restore electricity to six industries.
(With inputs from RSS)
