January 10: The Nepal Electricity Authority has cut off electricity supply to more than two dozen industries because of non-payment of dues for consuming electricity through the dedicated feeder and trunk line. A meeting of the council of ministers on Tuesday decided to instruct the authority to reconnect electricity supply lines to those industries.

The cabinet meeting also decided to form a committee to investigate the tariff dispute of dedicated feeder and trunk line. The Council of Ministers decided to form robe committee headed by former Supreme Court justice, Girish Chandra Lal. Joint secretaries of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies and the Ministry of Energy are the members of the committee. The committee has been mandated to submit a report on the issues regarding the tariff dispute of the dedicated feeder and trunk line.

The Infrastructure Development Committee of the House of Representatives also held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the dispute related to electricity tariff.

During the meeting, Kulman Ghising, executive director of the NEA, claimed that the industries consumed electricity 24 hours a day from the dedicated feeder and trunk line between 2072 and 2075 when the general public was facing load-shedding.

He said that the industries need to pay the additional tariff for the electricity consumed at that time. Ghising said that industrialists cannot be exempted under any pretext and there is no option than to pay the electricity tariff.

The government’s latest directive has played the spoilsport in NEA’s attempts to recover the dues from the industries at any cost.

According to the authority, 61 industries have yet to pay Rs 22.24 billion for consuming electricity using the dedicated feeders and trunk lines. The NEA has cut the lines of 25 industries since December 22 due to non-payment of dues. Among them, after Himal Steel paid the first installment of arrears last Monday, the authority resumed electricity supply. The authority issued a public notice on Tuesday and made arrangements for paying the dues in installments.

Although the Council of Ministers has instructed to form a committee to resolve the dispute, the NEA officials have taken a stance that they cannot reconnect electricity supply lines until the industries pay the installment of the arrears. NEA Spokesman Suresh Bhattarai said that the authority is not in favor of connecting the line under any circumstances, even if the Council of Ministers decides to reconnect the lines.

The industrialists on the other hand complain that they are incurring losses worth millions of rupees daily due to the NEA’s decision to disconnect electricity supply. They are lobbying with political leadership to reconnect the supply lines and resolve the dispute.