Energy Minister Gokarna Bista, accompanied by Energy Secretary Balananda Poudel and NEA Managing Director (MD) Deependra Nath Sharma, himself cut power supply to the head office of the Department of Roads at Babar Mahal, Kathmandu, and Singha Durbar Reconstruction Committee inside Singah Durbar. [break]The two electricity meters at the Department of Roads had outsanding dues of Rs 470,000 and Rs 291,000 while Singha Durbar Reconstruction Center had to clear a bill of Rs 358,000. The ministry had issued a public notice on July 25 asking consumers to clear electricity bills without delay.
NEA recovered Rs 165.33 million out of around Rs 660 million of total dues till Wednesday and it hopes that all the dues would be cleared within the next seven days, NEA MD Sharma said. “We have been receiving calls from several districts requesting us to restore power supply saying they would clear the dues soon. But we have told them, we will resume supply only after clearance of the dues,” MD Sharma revealed.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture has come forward to clear all its dues of the erstwhile Narayanhiti Royal Palace amounting to around Rs 60 million including around Rs 35 million of dues before the end of monarchy. The Ministry of Culture has already asked the Finance Ministry for the amount in name of Nepal Trust to clear the dues. “The amount is due to the government ant it will be paid.
The erstwhile palace currently houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Narayanhiti Palace Museum, Nepal Army and Ratna Rajya Laxmi Shah but there is still a single meter which created confusion about the respective dues of the four parties.
Meanwhile, NEA will publish another public notice Thursday, warning business houses and industries with dues of more than Rs 100,000 to clear within the next 15 days. MD Sharma revealed that these business houses and industries have outstanding dues of around Rs 210 million.
There have been reports of cutting of power supply to defaulting government offices from across the country. Santosh Pokharel reports from Pokhara that power supply to the regional transmission office of Radio Nepal which had dues of Rs 6.31 million was snapped. Our local correspondents from Chitwan, Nepalgunj and Surkhet have also reported about NEA cutting power supply to defaulting government offices.
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