Kathmandu, Jan 13: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda is reportedly involved in the dispute regarding dedicated feeder and trunk line. Under the PM’s directions, electricity has recently been disconnected to 21 industrial factories for not clearing the longstanding dues for the dedicated feeders and trunk lines.
But unable to bear the pressure from the industrialists, he instructed the Executive Director of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), Kulman Ghising, to take a middle path on the matter. He even asked to reconnect the power supply to the industries. The commission has also been formed as per the demands of the industrialists.
Yet, experts have accused Dahal of playing a double role thus making the dedicated feeder and trunk line an issue.
If Dahal had not played a double role, there would not have been any controversy regarding the dedicated feeder and trunk line, they said. If he had given all the responsibility to the authority, Rs 18 billion arrears would have been raised.
But now the PM seems eager to waive the arrears by putting pressure on Ghising, they argued. As a result, there has been a doubt whether Rs 18 billion in arrears would be collected.
Dahal has been accused of trying to make a deal with capitalists in this regard. According to a source, the government is making a deal with the electricity mafias to settle the case by waiving most of arrears.
The Electricity Authority has given a concession to industries with remaining dues to pay the amount in 60 installments by depositing 10 percent of the amount. However, a serious question has been raised about the Prime Minister’s credibility as he himself ignored the instructions given three weeks ago to disconnect the power supply to the industries that have yet to clear the dues. The total 179 industries have already paid the dues for using the facility. Some others seem willing to pay.
Even before, when the authority tried to cut off electricity to the industries that did not pay the dues, its efforts were thwarted by playing a big financial scam. At that time, a committee was formed under the chairmanship of Bhakta Bahadur Pun, a member of the board of directors of the authority, to waive the bills.
According to the report submitted on August 10, 2018, preparations were underway to collect only Rs 4 billion as the principal amount after waiving all fines.
According to the source, Dahal formed a judicial commission to settle the case based on the earlier report that specifies Rs 4 billion to be paid as the principle amount before 2075 BS, although the arrears and fines to be paid amount to Rs 22.24 billion until mid-December, 2023.
