The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers has sent a letter to the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, requesting necessary facilitation and arrangements for hearing the review regarding the payment of additional premium for dedicated trunk lines. The Prime Minister's Office sent a letter to the Ministry of Energy on Friday.

The letter has also asked for necessary facilitation to be provided to the concerned bodies, industrialists and entrepreneurs and the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry to operate the industry.

‘It is requested that the Nepal Electricity Authority, the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation and the concerned industrialists and the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry reach an agreement to simplify the payment of dedicated trunkline tariffs and make arrangements for hearing the review, and that the concerned bodies, industrialists and entrepreneurs and the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry to operate the industry are also requested to make arrangements for necessary facilitation to be provided to the concerned bodies, industrialists and entrepreneurs and the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, as per the instructions,’ the letter reads.

We have sent a letter to the concerned bodies to conduct the necessary administrative review on the dedicated and trunkline arrears. -Phanindra Gautam, Secretary, Prime Minister’s Office On October 17, an agreement was reached between Prime Minister Sushila Karki, Finance Minister Rameshwor Khanal, Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Kulman Ghising, Chief Secretary Ek Narayan Aryal and Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry President Chand Prasad Dhakal to simplify the payment of dedicated and trunkline tariffs and make arrangements for hearing the review. In the discussion, it was said that the industrialists had verbally agreed to pay the amount equivalent to the first installment of the 28 installments given by the authority as a deposit, not an ‘installment’ but a ‘disputed amount’, and to immediately connect the power line and then proceed with the review, appeal and judicial process.

Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office Phanindra Gautam said that a letter has been sent to the concerned body to conduct the necessary administrative review on the dedicated and trunk line arrears. ‘We have asked to make arrangements to hear the administrative review within the authority, but we have not said anything about the deposit or installment for that,’ he said. ‘We have asked to make arrangements so that the industrialists can go to appeal by deducting the amount from the amount to be paid by the authority and depositing that amount. The deposit or installment is decided by the concerned body. The Ministry of Energy will study it in detail.’

After the verbal agreement made on Kartik 17, some industrialists have paid the amount as agreed with the government and electricity has been connected to those industries. But even though the NEA took the amount in installments, the industrialists have been saying that they have paid it as a deposit. Energy Secretary Chiranjivi Chataut said that a letter sent by the Prime Minister's Office regarding dedicated and trunk lines has been received. 'The letter from the Prime Minister's Office has been received. Action has not been taken forward,' he said, 'We will send it to the NEA after discussion.'

The NEA Board of Directors meeting held on 21 Baisakh 2082 had decided to issue a notice to the industrialists to appeal within a month. A notice has been issued extending the time by an additional month. According to Shyam Kishore Yadav, who is also a member of the NEA Board of Directors, 46 industries that had started paying their dues under the installment facility and had not started, have applied for administrative review. However, the NEA had issued a notice on 12 Asoj to pay the dues by 17 Kartik, saying that all the activities related to the administrative review had been canceled.

The notice states that 28 months of installment facility will be provided to industrialists who want to pay their dues. On 13 Asho 2082, the NEA had issued a new notice correcting the previous notice and asking for the payment of the arrears by 2 Kartik. The industrialist says that the Prime Minister's Office has sent a letter to revive it as they have already paid the deposit and gone for administrative review. 'We have already paid 5 percent deposit and gone for administrative review, the Prime Minister's Office has sent a letter to revive it,' the industrialist said, 'If the decision of the Authority's board meeting regarding the review is revoked, it will be revived. We should proceed accordingly.'

10 industries are still not connected to electricity due to additional premiums for consuming electricity through dedicated and trunk lines. The Nepal Electricity Authority had shut down the electricity supply to 23 industries on 4 and 7 Kartik. Out of the total 25 industries that had to pay the arrears, two industries had already closed. Of these, 10 industries are not connected to electricity.

According to the NEA, the lines were connected after Gharana Foods and Goenka Foods paid the first installment in the middle of Tihar. Since then, the NEA has said that the lines of the disconnected industries have been connected after 4 industries paid their installments on Monday, 3 on Tuesday, 1 on Wednesday and 2 on Thursday. The NEA says that the lines were connected after one industry paid its installments on Sunday. 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 at that time.