March 25: Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal (IPPAN) has expressed its concern that the government has not implemented the reforms in obtaining license despite announcing new procedures. They argued that although the government has shortened the process of obtaining license, it has not been practically implemented.

IPPAN members expressed such views during a programme organized by the Society of Economic Journalist of Nepal (SEJON) on March 23 in the capital. As per the new provisions, the companies seeking to obtain license for generating electricity have to wait for 30 days for survey and an additional 120 days for power generation.

According to Khadga Bahadur Bista, outgoing president of IPPAN, the government has not made it clear whether the time period includes public holidays or not. “As compare to the past, the permission process has been shortened. But the process still takes time as the authorities seek relevant documents,” he said.

Similarly, policy-wise it is difficult to provide license to the projects unless they submit required documents, mentions Babu Raj Adhikari, spokesperson at the Department of Electricity Development. “There is no problem in giving permission for survey,” he said, adding, “But to grant permission for electricity generation, the companies must be registered and have obtained connection agreement from Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), which takes time.”

NEA works to connect the generated electricity from hydropower projects to the national grid. NEA signs connection agreement with the project only if it has plans to extend the national grid in the project area. Adhikari informed that the permission for construction of hydropower projects by private sector gets halted if the NEA does not have any plan to construct national grid in the project area.