KATHMANDU, Sept 12: Bowing to the pressure from the industrialists, the government once again turned its back from recovering the controversial bills of dedicated feeders and trunk lines that have long remained pending.
The debate came to the fore after the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) last week issued a public notice, giving the industrialists a 15-day ultimatum to clear their outstanding dues for using the dedicated feeders and trunk lines within the stipulated time or else face the disconnection of the main electricity supply lines. The industrialists have been refusing to clear their dues worth over Rs 15 billion on electricity use since 2015.
The Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) through a press release has stated that Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Monday asked the NEA not to implement its decision for now. The umbrella organization in a meeting with Prime Minister Dahal appealed to the government for a resolution to the dedicated and trunk line electricity issue.
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This time, showing the cause of ongoing recession, the FNCCI has urged the government to provide them with respite. FNCCI President Chandra Prasad Dhakal said the industries and businesses have been facing continued crisis following the COVID-19 pandemic and the entrepreneurs would be further discouraged if power supply is cut in such a situation.
The FNCCI has suggested to the government that special initiatives were needed to protect the industries in the present time of economic crisis when they are operating at less than 40 percent of their capacity. “We need support and cooperation at the present time,” Dhakal said.
Citing power outage issues, the NEA, in 2015, enforced the rule to impose additional fees on industries that consume lots of energy. The NEA had been charging 65 percent as premium charge for the users of dedicated and trunk lines, which was later on reduced to 15 percent on top of the normal tariff.
Earlier on August 9, 2020, the government had decided to waive the charge for the use of electricity through dedicated feeders and trunk lines of eight and a half months out of the total dues under the heading. With the decision, the industrialists were supposed to settle the dues of only 28 months and 11 days, which they still refused to pay.
In July 2019, the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) constituted a five member sub-committee headed by Nepali Congress leader Minendra Rijal to study the matter amid a controversy on whether it is legitimate to charge the industries with the premium charges or not. The sub-committee has sorted out Rs 14.08 billion dues of the industries for the use of dedicated feeders and trunk lines.
An annual report of the Office of the Auditor General also shows 49 industrialists have not cleared the pending electricity bills of Rs 15.53 billion for the special facilities provided to them during the period of load shedding.
