KATHMANDU, Jan 10: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has said that the Indian side has expressed its unwillingness to buy electricity from hydropower projects built in Nepal with direct investments from China.
Addressing a meeting of the parliamentary committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights Committee at Singha Durbar on Wednesday, Prime Minister Dahal said that this matter was also raised during the Nepal-India 10,000 MW electricity agreement in 10 years, which was signed during the visit of Minister of External Affairs of India, S Jaishankar, to Nepal on January 4.
Prime Minister Dahal said that even during Jaishankar's visit, India had reservations on purchasing electricity produced from hydropower projects with direct investment from China.
Nepal exports electricity worth Rs 8.32 billion to India
According to PM Dahal, an agreement has been reached, as per the understanding made during his visit to India before this, for exporting 10,000 megawatts of electricity from Nepal to India in the next 10 years and this agreement has opened the door for power trade between the two countries.
He said, “There is no mention in the current agreement about exporting electricity that will be produced only by India. Everyone, including India, can develop electricity in Nepal.”
But PM Dahal said that the Indian government is not interested in buying electricity from projects that are directly funded by the Chinese government. He said, “The Indian government has reservations on taking electricity with direct Chinese investment,” he said, “We are negotiating about this because India refuses to buy electricity from projects directly invested by China.”
“It is not good to call the project built by global tender as Chinese,” he said, “It should not be said that there is direct investment from China. We are trying to convince the Indian government on this.”
