"Power supply to about nine government offices across the country including the District Education Office in Biratnagar and Agriculture Office in Sunsari was cut after 5 pm," Secretary at the Energy Minsirty Balananda Poudel said.[break]
The ministry had issued a public notice on July 25 and asked government ministries and offices to clear their electricity bills before the deadline. Many of them did clear their dues before the Tuesday deadline. A press statement issued by NEA late in the evening revealed that Rs 143.14 million out of around Rs 660 million of dues has been paid till Tuesday, with all the offices inside Singha Durbar clearing their dues.
"The information network of NEA is very weak and we have not been able to gather information from across the country. But we estimate that around Rs 400 million of the outstanding dues has been cleared in the period," Energy Minister Gokarna Bista added.
NEA sources revealed that the head office of the Department of Roads at Babar Mahal, which has dues of hundreds of thousands of rupees, could be an important government office whose electricity supply could be snapped on Wednesday. The fate of Kathmandu Metropolis could be the same as it is yet to respond to the notice. The offices under Home Ministry, which had a whopping Rs 175 million in dues, in Kathmandu cleared their dues while prisons also paid part of their dues with whatever money they had.
"We will cut supply to more defaulters who did not respond to our notice. From Wednesday morning, I will myself go with NEA staff to cut electricity supply to major defaulters in Kathmandu," the minister said.
There is a confusion about the dues of the erstwhile Narayanhiti Royal Palace, which has run up a bill of Rs 60 million. It currently houses Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Narayanhiti Palace Museum, Nepal Army and Ratna Rajya Laxmi Shah. There is a single meter for the entire palace and separate meters weren´t installed even after the end of monarchy, leading to confusion regarding dues of the four separate consumers.
"I have already instructed for installation of separate meters to avoid confusion in future," Secretary Poudel revealed and added, "We are holding a meeting with all the four parties in the first hour and will cut power supply from Thursday if they don´t agree to clear at least the amount due after the end of monarchy."
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