House committee undecided on electricity dues

Sunday’s meeting of the Public Accounts Committee of the Federal Parliament, convened to address the outstanding electricity dues owed by industries to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), ended without a resolution.

Committee Chair Rishikesh Pokharel had proposed a six-point directive to tackle the issue, but the meeting became contentious when MPs objected to several of the proposed measures, including punitive actions against NEA's Executive Director, Kulman Ghising, and referring the matter to the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). The disagreement among members escalated into a heated exchange.

MPs from the CPN (Maoist Center) strongly opposed the directive, arguing that it was introduced with malicious intent. They warned that they would not accept any decisions made under such circumstances and threatened to reject any attempt to impose the directive forcefully.

The Nepali Congress MPs also showed little enthusiasm for making an immediate decision. When they expressed their hesitation, Chairperson Pokharel adjourned the meeting without reaching a conclusion.

Pokharel’s proposed directive included key actions such as instructing the relevant authorities to collect the Rs 21.88bn in outstanding dues identified by the Auditor General, seeking explanations for why the recommendations made by the previous committee were not implemented, and issuing new directives to enforce those recommendations.

The NEA has been trying to recover electricity dues from dozens of industries that used dedicated feeders and trunk lines to power their operations during the country’s severe electricity shortages. The problem began in 2008 and peaked in 2016 when Nepal faced up to 14 hours of power cuts daily during the dry season.

The Public Accounts Committee asserts that these industries owe Rs 21.88bn to the state-owned power utility. However, the Electricity Tariff Dispute Resolution Commission, led by former Supreme Court Justice Girish Chandra Lal, recommended that the NEA charge only Rs 6.41bn for the outstanding electricity tariffs from mid-January 2016 to mid-May 2018, plus a 25 percent fine. The commission argued that it would not be practical to charge the same rate for electricity used after the load-shedding period ended.