PAC has complete evidences and is determined to recover dues of Rs 21.88 billion: Pokhrel

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Rishikesh Pokhrel has claimed that the parliamentary committee has complete evidence to prove that the manufacturers who used dedicated feeders and trunk lines owe electricity bills of Rs 21.88 billion.

Posting a text on social media on Saturday, the PAC Chairman Pokhrel said the manufacturers owe outstanding dues of Rs 21.88 billion till date. “While the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has issued the bills of only Rs 8.40 billion, our effort is to recover the remaining Rs 13.48 billion which was the yield of the people’s sweat,” he stated.

Pokhrel termed that the industries compelled the people to live enduring load shedding for years. According to him, the industrialists enjoyed the benefit at the cost of the general people’s welfare, while they are refusing to pay the actual bills.

Citing power outage issues, the NEA, in 2015, enforced the rule to impose additional fees on industries that consume lots of energy through the dedicated feeder and trunk lines during the period of load shedding. The NEA had charged 65 percent as premium charge for the users of dedicated feeders and trunk lines on top of the normal tariff.

Under the dedicated feeder service, a factory that needed high voltage lines was permitted to receive direct electricity from a nearby substation, while those using trunk lines were provided with regular electricity directly through two substations.

The NEA has been reiterating to recover total dues of Rs 6.60 billion from 61 manufacturing companies that used the facility nine years ago. The controversial issue came into limelight again after the NEA disconnected electricity supply lines to six of these companies a few weeks ago. In contrast to the minimal amount that the public utility has targeted to recover, the PAC has been claiming that the dues are much more than the fixed amount.

The PAC in its Friday meeting directed the NEA to provide data related to the Time of Day (TOD) meters. Pokhrel sought the NEA’s clarity on the TOD meter's details at a time when the industrialists have been asking the authority to provide them with the evidence.

Pokhrel emphasized that, while the matter is technical, the committee focuses on principles and will work with all available facts and evidence. Pokharel instructed that the necessary documents be submitted to the secretariat within three days. He also directed the secretariat to prepare a report within five days, incorporating all relevant facts, evidence, and legal considerations.

Based on this report, the committee plans to address and resolve the dispute between industrialists and the NEA in their next meeting.

The government had formed a five-member committee chaired by the then Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation (MoEWRI), Dinesh Kumar Ghimire, on January 6, 2020. This committee was tasked with resolving the dispute regarding the electricity dues of industries using dedicated feeders and trunk lines. According to the committee's findings, the total outstanding amount owed by these 61 industries until mid-December 2023 was estimated at Rs 22.24 billion.

Subsequently, under pressure from the industrialists, the government established the Lal Commission, led by former Supreme Court Justice Girish Chandra Lal, to further investigate and provide recommendations on the matter. The commission's report suggested that the fees should be based on verified evidence and only for a limited period, leading to a reduction in the total outstanding dues to Rs 8.40 billion, including fines.