The Electricity Regulatory Commission has stated that it is the ‘duty’ of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to implement the report on ‘Dedicated’ and ‘Trunk Line’ prepared by the commission chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Girish Chandra Lal.

The Commission made this statement in the context of the NEA showing reluctance to implement the Lal Commission report.

The Cabinet decision on January 9, 2024 also states that it is the ultimate duty of the NEA to properly address the report on resolving the dispute related to the outstanding dues, presented by the Lal Commission.

The Lal Commission recommended that the NEA should not collect dues billed before January 13, 2016, and after May 14, 2018.

The commission also recommended that while the outstanding dues from December 2015 to April 2018 can be collected, they must be recalculated by determining the exact days and duration of load shedding.

The commission has recommended that since the NEA issued a notice stating that load shedding was limited to four hours after November 10, 2016, the collection of dues after that period must consider the specific days and duration of load shedding.

Due to the deadlock in resolving the dispute, the Cabinet on November 10 decided to form a technical committee under the leadership of Dr Arbind Kumar Mishra to collect and authenticate necessary factual details and evidence regarding the outstanding dues of the customers consuming electricity from dedicated feeders and trunk lines.

Stating that the technical committee is currently working to determine the outstanding dues, the Electricity Regulatory Commission has directed the NEA not to cut electricity lines until the committee completes its task.