December 31: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)’s Arghakhanchi Distribution Center has cut off power supply to Shubha Shri Agni Cement Industry.    

The power supply line was disconnected on Friday night after the industry based in Jaluke of Shitganga Municipality-8 did not pay Rs 470 million electricity dues, chief of NEA Arghakhanchi Branch Trilochan Bhattarai told the state news agency RSS.    

The amount was due for using electricity through the dedicated feeder.    

The NEA has cut off power supply to over a dozen industries reasoning that they failed to clear the tariff for using the dedicated feeder and trunk lines through which electricity was supplied during the time of load-shedding.   

The NEA took such drastic measures since December 22, a day after Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ordered the state-owned power utility to plug off the power lines and recover the tariff from them.  

The NEA was facing criticism that it was disrupting power only to small industries while letting the big ones go scot free.  

The private sector, on the other hand, has complained that the Nepal Electricity Authority disconnected power supply of dedicated feeder and trunk line without taking enough initiatives for the resolution of the dispute over electricity tariff arrears.  

They accused the government of disconnecting the lines without showing seriousness on addressing the six-year-old dispute of payment of electricity arrears of dedicated feeders and trunk line.  

They have even expressed their willingness to clear all the dues provided that the NEA furnishes details of the Time of Day (TOD) meter, which gives the exact information about the change in electricity rates during peak hours and off hours in a day. However, the NEA has maintained that it cannot provide such information.

The authority has so far stopped electricity supply to Jagadamba Cement, Reliance Spinning Mills, Ghorahi Cement, Arghakhanchi Cements, Triveni Spinning Mills, Ashok Steel, Sonapur Minerals and Oil Limited, Sarbottam Cement and Laxmi Steel among others for ignoring its request to clear the dues. There are reportedly over sixty industries in the blacklist of NEA who are yet to clear the dues.