The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is to resume power supply to consumers who have used electricity from dedicated feeders and trunk lines in the past but have not paid a premium charge for that.

The 960th meeting of the NEA Board of Directors, held under the chairmanship of the Minister for Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation, today decided to reconnect the electricity of the industries as per the decision of the cabinet meeting. The NEA had disconnected the power supply to 24 industries that had to pay more than Rs 50 million in tariffs.

The NEA Board of Directors had directed the NEA management to resume the power supply to such industries until the report was submitted by a probe commission formed by the government and a decision was taken by the government. The Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday formed the probe commission under the coordination of former justice of the Supreme Court, Girish Chandra Lal, to recommend the resolution of a power tariff dispute that surfaced between the NEA and industrialists.

The Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation and the Industry Secretary were the members of the commission. The meeting through the Energy Ministry directed the NEA to reconnect the power supply until the next decision of the government. On Thursday, the Ministry sent a letter implementing the directive.

During a meeting of the National Concern and Coordination Committee of the National Assembly held on Thursday, NEA Deputy Executive Director Manoj Silwal mentioned resuming power supply after making a decision from the meeting of the NEA Board of Directors as per the government’s directive.