KATHMANDU: The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has reconnected power lines to industries where service had previously been cut.
Chandan Kumar Ghosh, spokesperson for the Authority, confirmed that the majority of industries had their power lines restored last night, following a decision made at a board meeting on Tuesday.
He added that the remaining industries will have their lines connected today. “The board meeting made the decision yesterday, and by last night, most of the industries had their lines reconnected,” Ghosh said.
The NEA board meeting, held on Tuesday evening, also decided to collect outstanding premium fees for the trunk and dedicated tariffs and to restore electricity to the affected industries.
Following the Council of Ministers’ directive on Sunday, the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation was tasked with collecting all arrears related to the trunk and dedicated tariffs based on the Time-of-Day (TOD) metering system, within the next 15 days.
In response, the Ministry sent an official communication to the NEA, instructing the implementation of the tariff hikes as per the decision of the Council of Ministers and the recommendations from the Lal Commission report.
Based on this letter from the Ministry, the NEA board decided to proceed with the collection of toll arrears and restore power to the industries.
Under the new directive, the NEA must collect the outstanding toll arrears from industries within 15 days using the TOD metering system.
The Lal Commission’s report established separate tariff structures for periods of load shedding and for times after load shedding was lifted.
It also opened the way for collecting premium fees based on TOD meters for the period between 2072 BS and 2075 BS. The NEA expects to collect arrears totaling NPR 8 billion as a result.
Additionally, industrial consumers are required to pay a 25 percent surcharge in addition to the premium fees.
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