April 5: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has directed the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation to collect electricity tariff of dedicated feeders and trunk lines from defaulting industries within a month. A meeting of the committee held on Sunday (April 4) directed the ministry to collect all the outstanding dues.

The committee issued such directive to the Ministry of Energy after discussing a report prepared by a sub-committee. The Ministry of Energy should now give necessary instructions to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to collect the amount. PAC had formed a sub-committee under the coordination of MP Minendra Rijal to study the electricity tariff dispute over dedicated feeders and trunk lines.

According to the report, NEA has to collect Rs 10.14 billion from various industries. The committee has directed the government to collect the amount along with interest and compensation within a month. Chairman of the committee Bharat Kumar Shah said that he has instructed the concerned body to collect the amount within a month.

The committee said that it is not acceptable for the industries to delay the payment of electricity tariff even after getting electricity service through trunk line and dedicated feeder during extreme load shedding.

“If the general public does not pay the electricity tariff, the power is cut off immediately. Why not take action when the industrialists do not pay the tariff of billions?,”asked Shah, adding, “The outstanding dues will now be collected.” The government should not delay in collecting the dues along with the accrued interest.

NEA had also decided to collect all the dues from the industrialists in January. However, the decision has not been implemented. NEA was preparing to collect the tariff in installments from the industrialists from next year. The Electricity Regulatory Commission has not yet taken a decision in this regard.

NEA had provided electricity to the industrialists through dedicated feeder and trunk line by fixing 65 percent higher tariff rate from July 2015 during load shedding in the country. However, at that time, NEA was not authorized to fix electricity tariff. After that, NEA had approved the tariff from the then Electricity Tariff Determination Commission on January 13, 2016. As a result, there is a dispute regarding the tariff from the time the tariff was set by NEA to the date approved by the commission.

Some industries have not used electricity during load shedding. However, the authority had been sending bills. Also, NEA had been sending bills to the industrialists even after the end of load shedding. Industrialists have not paid dues stating this has put them into trouble. As a result, the issue is still mired in controversy. Now, PAC has decided to collect the dues.

The sub-committee had prepared the study report last year. However, due to increasing risk of corona virus the report could not be submitted to the committee. The dissolution of the parliament further delayed the submission of the report.

The committee made the decision after the Supreme Court reinstated the parliament. It has also been mentioned that the Electricity Regulatory Commission should take timely action to update the electricity tariff to prevent such problems in the near future.