After a long dispute between the government and the head of the Nepal Electricity Authority, the electricity company on November 12 restored power supply to industries whose connections had been cut on October 24.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Energy Minister Dipak Khadka favored immediate reconnection of electricity to industries, while NEA Director General Kul Man Ghising favored resumption of supply only after paying the bills for the electricity they used.

A Cabinet meeting on November 10 directed the NEA to restore power supply within 24 hours and recover outstanding dues within 15 days based on the time meter (ToD) system.

Twelve days after restocking industries, the utility says no industry has cleared its arrears. At least two dozen industries owe money to the NEA. According to the authorities, if these industries fail to meet the 15-day deadline to clear their dues, the NEA will cut off their electricity.

“We are a government agency that follows the government’s decision,” Chandan Kumar Ghosh, spokesperson for the NEA, told the Post. “If industries do not pay their arrears, we have to disconnect power lines after the 15th day.”

Following the Cabinet decision, the NEA board decided on November 12 to resume supply to the “failing” factories. The authority had previously requested a written directive from the council to this effect.

The NEA then complied with the Cabinet decision to resupply industries by stating that supply would be stopped if they failed to clear dues within 15 days.

However, Ministry of Power, Water Resources and Irrigation Secretary Suresh Acharya said the Cabinet may extend the deadline if industries fail to pay the remaining dues on time.

According to him, the government has formed a three-member technical team to inspect the ToD meters of industries.

The team formed under the leadership of Professor Arbinda Mishra includes Shree Ram Pandey and chartered accountant Sujan Kaphle among its members. The Cabinet meeting on November 10 formed the committee to resolve the dispute over calculation of electricity tariff.

“The team started its work on Sunday,” Acharya told The Post. “The government could extend the deadline given to companies to reimburse their contributions. »

The NEA cut off electricity to 34 industrial companies when some manufacturers failed to pay for the use of dedicated power lines. After the NEA cut off power supply, at least 14 manufacturers, including two state-owned cement factories, paid their installments.

According to the authority, the industrialists owe around Rs 8.25 billion, or Rs 6.65 billion as principal, plus a 25 percent fine. The authority first estimated that manufacturers who used the supply and main lines dedicated to energy owed nearly Rs22 billion. However, the arrears were adjusted when advice from the government-appointed commission was taken into account to resolve the disagreement.

On May 6, the committee headed by Girish Chandra Lal, former Supreme Court judge, submitted its report on resolving the tariff dispute on dedicated and main lines to the erstwhile Pushpa Kamal Dahal government. The commission had been shape to resolve the dispute over the money that manufacturers owed to the NEA for the use of electricity supplied by dedicated and main lines, from July 2015 to June 2020.

The government made a special (dedicated) arrangement for power supply to industrialists, even as the NEA imposed power cuts of several hours for other consumers during the same period.

The Lal Commission suggested that from January 2016 to April 2018 (when the country was facing severe power shortages and rationing), tariffs for using the exclusive facility would be determined based on days and periods supply of electricity, in accordance with prescribed standards.

The NEA also allowed industrial companies to pay their arrears in installments. While the initial deadline to pay the amount due was 28 months, industries now have 56 months to repay the dues.

However, former Power Ministry secretary Surya Nath Upadhyay said NEA chief Ghising was taking a vague approach to collecting dues from industrialists.

“It seems that Ghising has old data on ToD, which is not clear,” Upadhyay, who is also former chief commissioner of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, told the Post. “If the problem was real, the NEA should have knocked on the court’s door.”

Upadhyay also questioned Ghising for not obeying the Prime Minister and his supervising minister.

Prime Minister Oli and Energy Minister Khadka were at odds with NEA Director General Ghising who punished industrial companies after they failed to pay their bills in October.

At the mass meeting dubbed a “rally against anarchy” organized by the ruling CPN-UML, Prime Minister Oli, who is also the party’s leader, expressed anger at Ghising, saying the latter wanted to discourage industrial.

The authority put pressure on companies to pay their outstanding dues. While some have cleared their dues, others insist that they will not pay the bills until they receive the TOD meter data from the NEA. They accuse the public service of making false declarations.

In response, in August the NEA provided Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee with detailed records of energy supplied to businesses via dedicated feeders and mainlines, including data from TOD meters.