Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is preparing to convene a board meeting to recover billions of rupees in outstanding electricity dues.
Assuming office at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Kul Man Ghising, who is also a former Executive Director of NEA, had taken a decision to recover pending dues from dedicated feeder and trunk line consumers
NEA Executive Director Hitendra Dev Shakya said a board meeting will be held on Monday or Tuesday to decide on the modaliy to recover pending dues. “We will implement the decision taken by the minister. Since the minister himself chairs the Board of Directors of NEA, there will be no problem in recovering pending dues once a decision is taken,” Shakya said.
He added that the government’s directives would be enforced immediately.
Ghising had taken the decision to cut power supply to industrial consumers with pending dues during his tenure as the Executive Director. However, the decision could not be fully implemented due to the intervention of then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli.
According to NEA, dedicated feeder and trunk line users owe around Rs 25 billion, including penalties, to the utility.
Although industries were provided with an uninterrupted 24-hour power supply during the load-shedding period, they have refused to pay the bills, arguing they were charged even for unused electricity.
