The Electricity Regulatory Commission has emphasized that it is the responsibility of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to implement the findings of the “Dedicated” and “Trunk Line” report, which was prepared by the commission chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Girish Chandra Lal.
This statement comes in response to the NEA’s reluctance to act on the Lal Commission report. The report addresses the dispute over outstanding dues, and the Cabinet decision on January 9, 2024, also underlines that the NEA is ultimately responsible for resolving this issue.
The Lal Commission made several recommendations, including that the NEA should not collect dues billed before January 13, 2016, or after May 14, 2018. The commission also advised that the outstanding dues from December 2015 to April 2018 be collected only after recalculating them based on the precise days and duration of load shedding. The report further states that since the NEA had announced that load shedding was limited to four hours starting November 10, 2016, any dues from that period onward should account for the specific days and duration of the load shedding.
As the dispute remains unresolved, the Cabinet decided on November 10 to form a technical committee, led by Dr. Arbind Kumar Mishra, to collect and verify the necessary data and evidence related to the outstanding dues of customers served by dedicated feeders and trunk lines. The Electricity Regulatory Commission has instructed the NEA not to disconnect electricity services until the committee completes its work.
