August 11: The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has recorded an increase in its annual income by 164 percent.  The state-owned electricity authority has projected its annual net profit to rise to Rs 16.9 billion in the fiscal year 2021/22 from Rs 6.1 billion in the fiscal year 2020/21.    

NEA's Chief Executive officer Kulman Ghising shared that the annual income of the Authority has exceeded Rs 100 billion. Such figure was obtained through the unprocessed financial data of the NEA for the fiscal year 2021/22.

With this, the NEA has been established as the highest income-generating and profit-making public enterprises in Nepal.    

"The income from sales has increased with the rise in the energy consumption by 27 percent. Export of energy has also increased, said Ghising, adding, “The NEA has been successful to increase energy production by around 16 percent from the power houses owned by the NEA."

Ghising further shared that the energy leakage has also been reduced and the expenditure has been effectively managed resulting in the rise in net profit.

The NEA, which was in a loss of Rs 8.89 billion in the Fiscal Year 2015/16, has been making profit ever since the very next year.

The NEA registered a profit of Rs 1.5 billion in the Fiscal Year 2016/17. Its profit increased to as much as Rs 11.75 billion in the Fiscal Year 2019/20.

Ghising says that the NEA’s effort to maintain regular and uninterrupted supply of good quality of electricity has had a positive impact on the financial situation of the authority.

The NEA has generated an income of Rs 88 billion through the sales of electricity. The NEA says that it has waived an amount equivalent to Rs 980 million for the customers who paid their electricity bills on time.

A statement issued by the NEA on Wednesday says that the net income from sales of electricity during the last fiscal year was Rs 87 billion, which is 22 percent more compared to the previous fiscal year.

According to the NEA, leakage of electricity has been reduced to 15.38 percent in the last fiscal year. Such leakage was 25.78 percent in FY 2015/16. Ghising informed that the NEA made an additional income worth Rs 2 billion compared to the previous fiscal year by reducing leakage of electricity.

“We launched a campaign to reduce electricity leakage by controlling electricity theft and improving the standard of transmission lines and sub stations,” said Ghising.

Export of electricity to India from Nepal increased in the Fiscal Year 2021/22. On the other hand, the import has declined. At present, Nepal is exporting around 364 to 400 megawatts of surplus electricity to India per day. In FY 2020/21, Nepal exported 440 million units of electricity to India, which increased to 493 million units in FY 2021/22. NEA made an income of Rs 3.88 billion through the export of electricity.

In FY 2020/21, Nepal imported 2.8 billion units of electricity to meet the domestic demand but that dropped to 1.54 billion units in FY FY 2021/22, which is a significant decline of 45.05 percent comparatively.