December 31: When Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal was assuring industrialists to form a high-level commission to resolve the tariff dispute of dedicated feeder and trunk lines, the Nepal Electricity Authority was preparing to cut off electricity supply to more industries.

The authority was actively involved in cutting the line of industries until Friday midnight. The authority's team was deployed in Bara-Parsa industrial corridor till 12 midnight of December 29.

Out of the 23 industries whose lines were cut due to tax arrears, nine large industries are located in the Bara-Parsa industrial corridor. As the production of the industry has come to a grinding halt, the workers of these industries have already landed in the streets.

Hari Gautam, senior vice president of Birgunj Chamber of Commerce, an umbrella organization of Bara-Parsa industrialists, says that the prime minister keeps giving assurances to the industrialists, but the authority keeps cutting the line.

“The government should have taken proper decisions to provide relief as the industries are reeling under the effect of the economic recession. However, it seems that the government is not trying to resolve the dispute, but to intensify it," said senior vice president Gautam.

Industrialists recall that the prime minister promised a proper solution many times before. The private sector alleges that the government has been making fake assurances and the NEA has been presenting fake bills.

The prime minister, in a meeting with the industrialists on Friday, assured that the premium tariff will not be levied before the Electricity Tariff Determination Commission approves the premium tariff. He had also made it clear that the premium tariff would not be charged after the end of load shedding.

The committee formed under the coordination of the then Energy Secretary Dinesh Ghimire also said that the premium tariff cannot not be charged before the tariff was fixed (before mid-July 2015) and after the end of load shedding (mid-May 2018).

Industrialists say that the committee's report was approved by the then Council of Ministers.

But now, the controversy has surfaced because of the government’s dubious nature and the NEA presenting fake bills.

The industrialists have demanded that the NEA download the Time of Day (TOD) meter data to clear the ambiguity. However, the NEA is not willing to comply which is evident from the fact that it has written to the district courts in Sunsari and Makwanpur that such data has been deleted.

The industrialists have said they are willing to clear the arrears if the NEA shows the TOD meter data.

According to the authority, it is yet to collect a total arrears of Rs 22.24 billion from 61 industries including electricity tariff, interest and fines.

It includes Rs 6 billion arrears from 2015 to 2018 and Rs 8 billion in two years after the end of load shedding in 2018.

The NEA had amended the electricity tariff collection regulations in June 2020.