KATHMANDU: The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has submitted an extensive report comprising 90,000 pages of electricity bills, Time of Day (TOD) meter data, logbooks, and discount records to the parliamentary Public Account Committee (PAC). This submission comes after allegations that the NEA had been billing industries for electricity supplied through dedicated feeder and trunk lines without providing proper evidence during the load-shedding period.
Kulman Ghising, Managing Director of NEA, stated that the authority had meticulously gathered all the requested documents and presented them to the PAC. “We have downloaded all the records as asked by the parliamentary committee and submitted the details to the panel,” Ghising confirmed.
Ekram Giri, Secretary of PAC, corroborated the submission, revealing that NEA delivered 37 packets containing the TOD data to the committee.
The controversy centers around the NEA’s billing practices during the load-shedding period in 2015, when the authority imposed an additional 65% premium charge on industries using dedicated feeders and trunk lines. These lines allowed factories requiring high-voltage electricity to draw power directly from substations, ensuring a more reliable supply during outages.
Industrialists have accused the NEA of issuing bills without adequate evidence from the TOD meters, leading to PAC’s directive for NEA to provide comprehensive data.
The financial implications of the dispute are significant. The NEA is currently seeking to recover Rs 6.60 billion from 61 manufacturing companies that utilized the dedicated feeder and trunk line facilities nine years ago. However, the PAC contends that these manufacturers owe a much higher sum of Rs 21.88 billion.
In contrast, the Electricity Tariff Dispute Resolution Commission, led by former Supreme Court Justice Girish Chandra Lal, recommended a lower charge of Rs 6.41 billion for the outstanding electricity tariffs from mid-January 2016 to mid-May 2018, along with a 25% fine. The commission argued that it would be unfair to impose the same rates on industries after the load-shedding period had ended.
This ongoing dispute highlights the complexities of managing electricity distribution and billing during times of energy scarcity, with significant financial stakes for both the NEA and the industrial sector.