Kathmandu,Nepal
The Energy Ministry is set to form a new commission to fix electricity tariff, officials said. The new commission will replace a similar body formed in 1994 under the Electricity Tariff Fixation Rules. “The new committee will be formed within a month,” said a source.
The existing panel, which last recommended a 100 per cent hike in 2001, had a tiff with then Energy Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat, a member of the Madhav Kumar Nepal Cabinet, after it stood against a tariff hike that the minister had proposed. Restructuring of Nepal Electricity Authority is the precondition to any hike, the seven-member panel under former water resources secretary Mahendra Nath Aryal had said.
The government’s intentions to do away with the old commission became evident as the Jhala Nath Khanal government presented a special document at the Parliament on March 23, which declared a power crisis in the country and pledged to dissolve the tariff commission.
The existing panel, which last recommended a 100 per cent hike in 2001, had a tiff with then Energy Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat, a member of the Madhav Kumar Nepal Cabinet, after it stood against a tariff hike that the minister had proposed. Restructuring of Nepal Electricity Authority is the precondition to any hike, the seven-member panel under former water resources secretary Mahendra Nath Aryal had said.
The government’s intentions to do away with the old commission became evident as the Jhala Nath Khanal government presented a special document at the Parliament on March 23, which declared a power crisis in the country and pledged to dissolve the tariff commission.
However, the government is yet to make legal provisions to replace the old commission with a new one. A new act with provisions to scrap the old panel is yet to be passed. Asked about the draft act, the Prime Minister’s Office and officials at the Energy Ministry said they had lost track of the document.
Energy Minister Posta Bahadur Bogati said the ministry was working on a price hike, to be implemented once the state utility meets ‘some preconditions’. “We need to adjust the prices as they have not been hiked for a decade,” he said, adding, “For the hike, though, NEA will have to restructure its finances as well as its administration.”
Source: Himalayan news service
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