Former Justice Lal’s Commission report published

Kathmandu, Nov 11: The government has published the report submitted by the Inquiry Commission led by former Supreme Court Justice Girish Chandra Lal.

The Commission was formed as per the cabinet’s decision on January 9, 2024, to resolve the disputes related to the electricity tariffs of customers who used dedicated feeders and trunk lines between 2016 and 2018.

The Cabinet meeting last Sunday decided to make public the report of the Commission. Accordingly, the report was launched at a press meeting at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation.

The report comprises the core issue of contention, the definition of dedicated and trunk lines, their objectives and criteria for determining the tariff, and verdicts of various courts on the matter, among others.

The Commission, in its report, stated that the arrears relating to the dedicated feeders and trunk lines would be collected on the basis of Time of Day (ToD) meters.

The Nepal Electricity Authority had implemented the provisions to provide an uninterrupted supply of electricity to certain private industries, public facilities, and offices during peak load-shedding hours by charging the beneficiaries an additional up to 65 percent premium fee.

During the press meeting on Monday, Minister for Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation Deepak Khadka informed that the report would come into force as it is public now.
Minister Khadka further shared that electricity tariff arrears will be collected within 15 days and power supply will be reconnected to the industries that had not cleared the outstanding fees for electricity within 24 hours.

The NEA, however, will decide on the modality to retrieve the outstanding fees, clarified the minister.
The Ministry facilitated between the NEA and dedicated feeders and trunk line users for collection of the payment based on their usage, as Minister Khadka explained.

The Ministry also shared that cutting the electricity line was not a viable solution to the issue.

The report has classified the duration of usage of dedicated feeder and trunk lines into three timelines, starting from July to December 2015, followed by January 2016 to April 2018 and from May 2016 to 2022.
The report clearly stipulated that the arrears during the second timeline (January 2016 to April 2018) should be collected sparring the first and third timelines.

The collection of arrears before 2015 would go in line with the verdicts of the courts, while the load-shedding issue no longer prevailed after April 2018, said Energy Secretary Suresh Acharya.

The bill will be deducted and outstanding fees will be recovered as per the recommendation of the report, Acharya asserted. —RSS