KATHMANDU: The government has granted permission to the Nepal Electricity Authority to charge the tariff for electricity distributed to industries from dedicated feeder and trunk lines from mid-January 2016 to mid-May 2018.

The NEA cannot levy the full tariff it claims the industries a liable to pay after the Council of Ministers decided last week to implement the recommendations made by the commission chaired by former judge Girish Chandra Lal resolve the electricity tariff dispute.

The commission submitted its report to Energy Minister Shakti Bahadur Basnet on May 5. The government formed the commission on January 9 with the mandate to study and submit a report on the disputes related to the tariff of electricity supply through dedicated feeder and trunk lines.

Sushil Chandra Tiwari, secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation said that the Council of Ministers has sent a letter to the ministry to implement the report of the 'Electricity Tariff Dispute Resolution Commission, 2080' regarding the electricity tariff dispute of dedicated feeder and trunk line.

According to him, after the report was approved by the Council of Ministers, a letter was sent to the ministry for implementation last Friday. As mentioned in the report, the industrialist will have to pay to the electricity dues to the NEA only from mid-January 2016 to mid-May 2018. “The report submitted by the commission has been approved by the Council of Ministers. Now the report will be implemented," said Energy Secretary Tiwari told New Business Age. According to him, the outstanding electricity tariff from mid-January 2016 to mid-May 2018 is Rs 6.41 billion. The industrialists will have to pay interest and 25 percent penalty to the amount.

According to Tiwari, commission's report has suggested that it is not appropriate to collect fees twice from the industrialists, especially after mid-May 2018 to mid-May 2020 after the NEA announced an end to loadshedding. The NEA has been demanding an additional Rs 8.44 billion from the industrialists as electricity charge for this period, which the commission report does not allow the state-owned utility to collect.

There has been a dispute between the industrialists and the electricity authority on this issue for a long time. The authority even disconnected the lines of some industries after the industrialists took a stand of not paying the electricity tariff.