The Prime Minister's position did not last even three weeks

Kathmandu. The government is caught in a maze of industries that do not pay dues by using electricity from dedicator feeders and trunk lines. When the industrialists resorted to the strategy of not paying taxes, instead of making the leaders happy, the state's 22 and a half billion rupees were at risk. After the meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday gave instructions to immediately reconnect the lines to 24 industries whose lines were cut due to non-payment of electricity tariffs, 22 billion 240 million rupees, which are about to come to the state treasury, will not be raised at present. After losing 46 cases in a row, industrialists who used electricity from dedicator feeders and trunk lines and did not pay dues, resorted to political lobbying. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal could not stick to his decision even for three weeks due to lobbying by leaders of major political parties and parliamentarians. After Prime Minister Dahal's directive on January 5th, the Nepal Electricity Authority started cutting the lines of industries that do not pay tariffs from January 6th. At the same time, some industrialists have gone to court, but the decision of the authority to cut the line of customers who do not pay the fee is considered justified. After increasing the pressure from the industrialists, the meeting of the authority's board of directors held on 16th January has given the facility to pay the tariff in 60 installments and after paying the first installment, the line can be reconnected. Using this facility, Himal Steel has re-connected the line. In the context that the Court, Public Accounts Committee, Council of Ministers, Commission on Abuse of Authority and the Auditor General's report have cleared the way to collect the arrears, the government suddenly backtracked from its decision and decided to re-connect the power line and form a commission. The meeting of the Council of Ministers held on Tuesday has formed an inquiry committee headed by former judge Girish Chandra Lal regarding the dedicator feeder and trunk line arrears. Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Industry are members of the committee. Prime Minister Dahal's speech changed from Friday as the industrialists increased their pressure. It has been discussed that the leaders took huge financial benefits from the industrialists when the authority cut the line last time as well. The discussions at that time have been repeated that the parliamentarians of major parties should give facilities to the industrialists even though they have been exempted from paying the tariffs from eight years ago for the next five years. In the meeting of the Infrastructure Development Committee of the House of Representatives held on Tuesday, some MPs advocated not to raise the tariff, speaking the voice of the industrialists, but MPs such as CK Raut, Madhav Sapkota and others maintained the stand that the tariff should not be discounted on various grounds. The parliamentarians suggested that the authority should not gain a foothold in this by saying that it is justified to charge more fees for the electricity used by the industrialists who have benefited by using 24-hour electricity when the people have been suffering from load shedding for 19 hours. It is justified to cut the line according to the order of the court and the suggestion of the General Accountant, Parliamentary Committee Authority and other bodies, according to the Nepal Electricity Authority, Electricity Distribution Regulations, 2078 Regulation 31 and Electricity Tariff Collection Regulations, 2078. Out of 239 customers who used electricity from dedicator feeders and truck lines, 179 have already paid. Sources say that special facilities should not be given to the remaining 60 and the government has created an investigation committee to further complicate the arrears dispute. According to Regulation 20 (6) of the Electricity Distribution Regulations, 2069, if the consumer is not satisfied with the decision of the discount bill according to the notice and regulation 55 (1) of the notification to pay the discount billed amount within 35 days, there is an alternative legal provision that can appeal to the review committee of the authority. However, none of the consumers who have been billed with discounts have submitted a request to the review committee to cancel the decision of the discount bill.