KATHMANDU, June 18: The Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) has scrapped the provision of dedicated and trunk lines, bowing to the pressure from the industrialists.

Under the new electricity tariff rate effective from Monday, the regulatory body has removed the clause that had been in place for the last few years. Under the new rule, the industrialists will pay for electricity consumption as much as the normal consumers pay, not more than that.

The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) charged the industries using high power lines an additional 15 percent on the normal tariff. Earlier, the NEA had been charging 65 percent as premium charge for the users of dedicated and trunk lines. Citing power outage issues, the NEA, in 2015, enforced the rule to impose additional fees on industries that consume lots of energy.

According to NEA, 185 commercial users have outstanding dues of around Rs 10 billion. The NEA has been forwarding a formal notice to these industries to clear the dues. However, the industrialists have refused to settle the dues.

Although the condition of dedicated feeder and trunk lines have been removed, the ERC is not clear on what to do with the industries that defied the government’s previous rule.  

Under the revised rate, the households consuming a small amount of electricity will pay 5-10 percent less than the existing rate, while the industries receiving power from a 66 kV line will have to pay 10-14 percent more, according to the ERC.

The ERC has also asked the authorities to reduce the transmission loss to 4.05 percent and the distribution loss to 10.45 percent. 

 
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