The government has published the report submitted by the Inquiry Commission led by former Supreme Court Justice Girish Chandra Lal.
The Commission was formed as per the cabinet's decision on January 9, 2024 to resolve the disputes related to the electricity tariffs of industries which used dedicated feeders and trunk lines between 2016 and 2018.
The Cabinet meeting last Sunday decided to make public the report of the Commission. As per the decision, the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation published the report at a press meet on Monday.
The report has recommended suggestions on core issue of contention and provides the definition of dedicated and trunk lines, their objectives and criteria for determining the tariff and verdicts of various courts on the matter among others.
The Commission, in its report, stated that the arrears relating to the dedicated feeders and trunk lines should be collected on the basis of Time of Day (ToD) meters.
The Nepal Electricity Authority had provided uninterrupted supply of electricity to certain private industries, public facilities and offices during the peak load-shedding hours by charging the beneficiaries up to 65 per cent premium fee. However, the industries refused to pay the electricity tariff. As the dispute escalated, the government formed the commission headed by Lal.
After releasing the report, Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Deepak Khadka, said that the government will now implement the recommendations of the report.
Minister Khadka further shared that electricity tariff arrears will be collected within 15 days and power supply will be reconnected to the industries that had not cleared the outstanding fees for electricity within 24 hours. The NEA, however, will decide on the modality to retrieve the outstanding fees, clarified the minister.
Stating that disconnecting the electricity lines to the industries was not a viable solution to the issue, Minister Khadka said that the government will facilitate collection of electricity dues.
The report has classified the duration of usage of dedicated feeders and trunk line into three timelines starting from July to December 2015 followed by January 2016 to April 2018 and from May 2016 to 2022.
The report clearly stipulates that the arrears during the second timeline (January 2016 to April 2018) should be collected while the industries should be exempted from paying the bills for the first and third timelines.
The collection of arrears before 2015 would be done in line with the verdicts of the courts while there was no load-shedding after April, 2018, said Energy Secretary Suresh Acharya.
The bill will be deducted and outstanding fees would be recovered as per the recommendation of the report, Acharya asserted. -- RSS
