After four days of the Prime Minister's order, the government power monopoly Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) today late evening connected the power supply to six industries.
Earlier in the afternoon, the NEA board has decided to resume power supplies to them with condition. According to the condition, the industries must pay their dues within 3 months, otherwise, the supply will again be disrupted, a board member informed. "The NEA has resumed power supply to the six industries on the condition that they will clear their pending dues within three months."
A meeting of the board of directors of the power utility held today afternoon has decided to resume the power supply also as according to the direction of the Prime Minister and energy minister.
The board meeting was, however, not cordial as two of the board members, Bhakta Bahadur Pun and Kapil Acharya, wrote note of decent. Pun, near to the dethroned Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Maoist Centre, and Acharya near to NCP-S claimed that there is no guarantee of dues collection within 3 months also, even after resumption of power.
The NEA board has energy minister Dipak Khadka as the chair, and energy secretary Sarita Dawadi, revenue secretary Dr Ram Prasad Ghimire, NEA managing director (MD) Kulman Ghising, representative from Consumer Group Bhakta Bahadur Pun, power sector representatives Kapil Acharya, and Ratan Bahadur Ayre, and prominent member from private sector Bharat Raj Acharya.
"Of them, two board members wrote note of decent, but the majority of the members endorsed the decision facilitating the NEA to resume power," another member of the NEA board said.
NEA had cut power supplies to six industries – Reliance Spinning Mills (753.68 million), Ghorahi Cement, Arghakhanchi Cement (448.60 million), Jagadamba Synthetic (205 million), Hulas Steel (141.20 million), and Jagadamba Steel (1.60 billion) dues including 25 per cent delay fine – between July 9 and 11 for not clearing their dues of dedicated and trunk lines.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Friday directed NEA managing director Kul Man Ghising to resume power supply to all industries at the earliest as the private sector has been suffering due to slow-down in economy.
However, Ghising told the Prime Minister Oli that he would take the proposal to the board of directors.
Oli also objected to NEA’s decision -- addressing the meeting of the House of Representatives on Sunday -- of not supplying the power to the industries and discouraging the private sector during the time of economic slow down.
“As of now surplus energy is going to be wasted in the rainy season, and NEA has cut power supply to big consumers for not clearing electricity dues,” Oli said in parliament.
According to the NEA, a total of 61 industries have to pay cumulative dues of Rs 6.60 billion.
The debate started a decade ago, when the NEA proposed the industries to supply uninterrupted power for extra charge. Those days, the industries were suffering due to irregular power supply. THus they accepted the NEA proposal to pay premium charge for using dedicated feeder and trunk line, during the load-shedding period.
Thus, the state power monopoly, citing power outage issues in 2015, enforced the rule to charge premium on industries that consume 24 hour uninterrupted energy through the dedicated feeder and 20 hour of uninterrupted power supply through the trunk lines, during the period of load shedding.
The NEA had charged 65 per cent as premium charge for the users of dedicated feeders and trunk lines on top of the normal tariff. The industries have been regularly paying their normal tariff. But the dispute started after the NEA sent the bills to the industries with premium charges, that also four years later.
Under the dedicated feeder service, a factory that needed high voltage lines was permitted to receive direct electricity from a nearby substation, while those using trunk lines were provided with regular electricity directly through two substations.
There has been dispute about the period, and 24-hour and 20-hour uninterrupted power usage, according to the agreement between the NEA and industries. The buyer, industries, and seller, NEA, both must follow the agreement, as it is legal binding to follow contract.
But the NEA has charged the industries with premium without providing the Time of the Day (ToD) Meter, which the industries have been asking for, if the NEA charges premium.
They have been blaming the NEA for slapping the premium charge of period even after the load shedding was declared officially over, and before the premium charge approved the Electricity Regulatory Commission, which has the only authority of fixing the power charges, not NEA.
Former FNCCI president Pashupati Muraraka, who is also one of the industries that has been asking the NEA to show ToD meter, said that they are ready to pay the premium charge, if the NEA produces ToD.
"During the load-shedding period, a decade ago, NEA supplied power to some industries through dedicated feeder and trunk line, but with condition fixed by the NEA itself, not the industries," he said, adding that the industries have been asking the NEA to follow the condition, fixed by itself.
"There are two dispute; first time period and second condition fixed by the NEA itself, not the industries," he added. "The dispute of the time period has been, more or less, solved by Lal commission formed by the erstwhile government led by Puspa Kamal Dahal, and now the remaining dispute about the condition will also be solved once the NEA produces the ToD Meter, and the industries will pay accordingly."
After a long dispute, the Dahal-led government had on January 9 formed a committee under the former Supreme Court Justice Girish Chandra Lal, with joint secretaries of the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoICS) as members.
However, after a while, the members were replaced by the water and irrigation secretary and commerce secretary.
The committee, after three months of long investigation, has suggested the power monopoly to take premium charges of electricity used during the period of February 2016 to April 2018, only, not before and after the date. Before February 2016, the tariff was not approved by the Electricity Regulation Commission, the power sector regulator, and after April 2018, the government and NEA declared no-load-shedding in the industries.
The Lal Commission has also recommended charging premium based on the consumption amount recorded by the Time of the Day (ToD) Meter.
But NEA managing director Ghising is adamant to collect the premium charges for the period not mention by the Lal Commission also. The Dahal-led cabinet has also directed the NEA to follow the Lal Commission report. But, Ghising and NEA are not ready to follow the Lal Commission report, as they fear of corruption charges.
The NEA has booked the dues and showed that as profit in the balance and distributed bonus as well, despite the acute shortage of cash flow. Now, if they collect less charge, following the Lal Commission report, they are in the soup.
Thus, the adamant NEA on June 23 issued a notice to the industries giving them a deadline of 15 days to clear their dues. However, the industrialists did not turn up to pay the dues within the stipulated timeline that ended last Monday. They instead asked for proof.
The NEA, refusing to implement the recommendation of Lal Commission, sent the excel sheet record of the electricity use to the industries. But the industries, again, asked for ToD Meter to pay premium dues.
In the meantime, the government has changed.
The NCP-Maoist Centre supremo Dahal-led NCP-Maoist Centre and CPN-UML coalition government has been replaced by CPN-UML chair KP Sharma Oli-led CPN-UML and Nepali Congress coalition government a week ago.
The incumbent Prime Minister Oli has been vocal on the NEA's treatment to the industries, which has put pressure on NEA, especially Ghising, who is near to CPN-Maoist Centre supremo Dahal.
After the pressure from the premier, energy minister, who is the NEA board chair, the NEA’s board meeting held yesterday has also decided to facilitate the industrialists to clear their dues on dedicated feeders in 28-month installments. But the industries did not give any ear to the NEA proposal.
According to the NEA, the flexibility it has adopted will relieve the industries to settle the dues at a time of business slowdown due to low demand in the market. But the industries claim that they want the proof, not the time period, to pay premium charge claimed by the NEA.
