The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has extended the deadline for paying the outstanding dues for dedicated and trunk lines by Sunday. The NEA is preparing to disconnect the electricity of industries that do not pay the first installment by taking advantage of the installment facility provided by the NEA during that period. Meanwhile, on Friday, industrialists said that they have submitted a letter to Prime Minister Sushila Karki's private secretariat stating that they have no outstanding dues to pay.

On 12 Asoj, the NEA had issued a notice to pay the dues by 17 Kartik, stating that all the activities related to the administrative review had been canceled. The notice mentioned that 28 months of installment facility would be provided to industrialists who wanted to pay the dues. On 13 Asoj, the NEA corrected the previous notice and issued a notice to pay the dues by 2 Kartik. The period ends next Sunday. 

The NEA has stated that industrialists have started paying the installments by taking the installment facility as soon as the period given by the NEA expired. ‘Although industrialists started paying the installments by taking the installment facility, it was stopped in the middle. Now the installments have started being paid again,’ said NEA spokesperson Rajan Dhakal.

Dhakal says that electricity may be cut off in industries that do not come to take the installment facility. "In the case of industries that have not paid their dues by taking the installment facility by Sunday, the action will be taken as per the NEA's Act, Rules and Regulations," he said. "Industries that do not take the installment facility or pay their dues may have their lines cut off."

According to the NEA, Samrat Cement, Rolpa Cement and Nav Nepal Plastic Industries had already started paying their dues by taking the installment facility. However, after paying some of the dues by taking the 28 installment facility, they stopped paying the installments from 2082 Baisakh.

Samrat Cement had obtained approval from the NEA to pay the total outstanding amount of Rs 37.7 million in additional charges for dedicated and trunk line usage from 2072 Magh to 2075 Baisakh in 28 installments, with a monthly installment of Rs 1.349 million per installment. The industry stopped paying the installments from last Baisakh after paying four installments. The industry has paid the installments up to Jestha after paying three installments of Rs 40 lakh 47 thousand at once.

As per the approved installment facility, only seven installments were paid out of the 11 installments to be paid from Ashad to Asoj. A letter was sent again to pay the remaining four installments of Rs 53 lakh 96 thousand and the industry said that it would pay the remaining installments regularly by paying the said amount, informed Deepak Gautam, Chief of the Authority, Province Division Office, Nepalgunj. Approval was obtained from the Authority to pay the outstanding amount of Rs 99 lakh 12 thousand of Rolpa Cement in 28 installments with a monthly installment of Rs 354 thousand per installment.

The industry had stopped paying after paying 6 installments. The industry has reached a stage where it has paid Rs 17 lakh 70 thousand of five installments at once and is paying regular installments. Now the industry has 17 installments to pay. Similarly, Nav Nepal Plastic Industries has paid the outstanding amount by paying Rs 12 lakh 12 thousand of 12 installments. Laxmi Steel has started paying the outstanding tariff for consuming electricity through dedicated and trunk lines. Out of the outstanding tariff of Rs 237.9 million, Laxmi Steel has paid Rs 84.98 million in installments. Laxmi Steel had also stopped paying installments since last Baisakh.

According to the authority, Hama Iron, Hulas Steel and Ashok Steel have also paid the first installment. Hulas has received approval from the authority to pay the total outstanding premium tariff of Rs 141.12 million for the use of dedicated and trunk lines from 2072 Magh to 2075 Baisakh in 28 installments, with a monthly installment of Rs 50.43 million per installment. Manoj Silwal, Executive Director of the authority, informed that the industry paid the first installment on Friday.

Similarly, another Ashok Steel from Simara, which has an outstanding tariff of Rs 175.8 million, has also paid the first installment. Ashok has paid Rs 6.3 million by taking the facility of 28 installments. Hama has paid Rs 2.09 million as the first installment out of the Rs 5.85 million dues. Similarly, Sarvottam Cement and Shubhashree Agni Cement have also paid the first installment on Friday.

Some industries have started paying their dues by taking the installment facility, but some have not started yet. An industrialist said that the authority has not taken any decision on the administrative review after keeping a 5 percent deposit. ‘We were called for the administrative review, we also submitted the application by keeping a 5 percent deposit, but justice was not given. No decision was taken. All the activities related to the administrative review were canceled and we were asked to pay the dues again.’

Shyam Kishore Yadav, coordinator of the dedicated and trunkline related administrative review committee, said that the report was submitted accordingly as the members expressed their inability, saying that there would be a conflict of interest. ‘The authority and the Ministry of Energy had already decided to collect the money. The court had also asked us to collect the money,' Yadav said, 'There were 5 of us, 3 of the NEA and one of the Ministry of Energy employees, and they expressed their inability to submit the TOR given to us, saying that there was a conflict of interest.'

The industrialists have also raised questions in the letter submitted to Prime Minister Karki about the NEA board meeting that applied for a review and canceled the entire review process while the application was pending. The industrialists have also said that they are ready to pay the arrears based on evidence as per the Lal Commission's recommendations.

'We have applied for a review in accordance with the procedure against the Authority for demanding a special tariff without proof and while the application was pending, the NEA's board of directors decided to cancel the entire review process and sent a letter to the Honorable Sir that the electricity line would be disconnected if the arrears were not paid within 2 Kartik. We are forced to make this application to the honorable sir,' the letter states.

Yadav, who is also a member of the NEA's board of directors, said that 46 industries have applied for administrative review, including those that have started paying their dues under the installment facility. The NEA's board of directors meeting held on 21 Baisakh 2082 had decided to issue a notice to the industrialists to appeal within a month. 

The commission formed under the leadership of former Justice Girish Chandra Lal had suggested that the tariff should be recalculated after determining the day and period of electricity supply to the customers as per the standards of that time. The NEA claims that the arrears of tariff from 2072 Magh to 2075 Baisakh are Rs 6.6 billion. The NEA says that since 60 days have elapsed as per the rules, an additional 25 percent fee should also be paid. In this way, the arrears reach Rs 8.25 billion. 

The industrialists have been demanding data on Time of Day (TOD) meters from the NEA for a long time, but the industrialists have written in a letter that they have not been provided. ‘If the industry is proven to have to pay the arrears, we express our commitment to pay the amount,’ the letter states, ‘The decision to impose a special fee for electricity flowing through trunk lines and dedicated line feeders was not made by the Tariff Determination Commission, and these industries are only seeking protection from the law by changing the content of the decision and creating false arrears and claiming them as trunk-dedicated arrears.’ 

The Lal Commission had stated that the amount would not have to be collected for the period from 2072 Shrawan to 2072 Pus when electricity tariffs had not been determined. The commission has suggested that the arrears should not be collected for the third period, i.e. from 2075 Jestha to 2077 Ashar, as load shedding has ended. The last time the NEA cut off electricity to 40 industries at once on 8 Kartik 2081. The cabinet meeting held on 25 Kartik 2081 had decided to calculate the arrears based on TOD meters and recover them within 15 days. Immediately after the