Following a tug-of-war between the government and the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the state-owned power utility finally restored power supply to the defaulting industries with a 15-day deadline to settle the outstanding dues, in compliance with the government’s directive.

After the Council of Ministers instructed the NEA to reconnect the power supply to the defaulting industries within 24 hours, NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising finally bowed to the pressure but expressed his resolve to recover the dues for the use of dedicated feeders and trunk lines which the industries have refused to pay under various pretexts.

Organizing a press meet on Wednesday, Ghising said he will not let go of the industrialists who used the special facilities of uninterrupted electricity supply when the country was suffering from hours-long power outage. “I will recover the due amounts at any cost from the industries that enjoyed special benefits of dedicated feeders when the general public suffered load shedding,” he said.

Ghising has been facing allegations of disobeying the government directive for reconnecting lines of the defaulting industries. Although a meeting of the Council of Ministries on Sunday directed the NEA to reconnect electricity supply lines to the production plants that faced the NEA’s action, Ghising had been dilly-dallying to reconnect the supply lines.

In 2015, during a time when there was 18 hours of daily load shedding, 237 industries by agreeing to pay premium charges received electricity through the dedicated feeders and trunk lines. Despite repeated warnings from the NEA, the industries refused to pay their dues, claiming they had not received evidence, leading to the disconnection of the lines of 34 industries on October 24 against the wish of the incumbent government.

As the standoff between the government and the NEA continued, the Cabinet decided to implement the recommendation of the commission led by former justice of the Supreme Court, Girish Chandra Lal, and directed the NEA to reconnect the electricity lines while recovering the dues based on the Time-of-Day (TOD) meter data within 15 days.

“If the firms do not clear the dues within the stipulated time, the NEA will again cut the electricity lines,” said Ghising.

Ghising reiterated that the bills they had sent to the industries were based on the TOD meter readings that were approved by the Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC).

Ghising added that they have already sent the bills developed in excel sheets to the concerned industries. The NEA has calculated a total outstanding amount of Rs 6.6 billion, excluding a 25 percent penalty, for 61 industries while correspondence was made in mid-June 2024.

“We have not added any surcharges, but included only the premium charge on the special facilities used by the industries during load shedding,” said Ghising adding that they were flexible in allowing any modality of installments agreed by the industries to clear their dues.

Ghising urged the government to show its concern over the financial health of the NEA. “If the NEA’s financial balance is weakened due to multiple reasons seen in recent days, the entire power supply system will be adversely affected, suffering the entire economy.”

Private sector miffed with Ghising’s statement

Anjan Shrestha, senior vice president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, expressed his surprise that the state-owned enterprise tends to overcross the decision of the government. “The conflict between the government and the NEA has faded the country’s image in the international arena. This will also invite instability in the economy,” Shrestha told Republica.

Shrestha said industrialists have been reiterating that they will clear the dues if the NEA provides TOD meter data. “It is not fair that the state-owned body is forcibly imposing its unilateral decision without producing any evidence,” he added.

Ghising refutes allegation of corruption charge on transformer purchase

At a time when Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Kulman Ghising has been facing allegations of possible corruption on purchase of excessive transformers, Ghising said the purchased equipment is still insufficient for smooth supply of electricity.

At present, the NEA has a stock of 700 transformers worth Rs 270 million. In this context, Ghising has been blamed for procuring the equipment in excessive quantities to secure undue benefits while wasting NEA’s financial resources.

Speaking at a press meet, Ghising said the NEA requires at least 5,000 transformers in stock. Giving an instance of the floods and landslides in late September that damaged around 200 transformers, disrupting the electricity supply, Ghising said the NEA was able to quickly replace the equipment from its stock to maintain the smooth power supply to the affected areas.