Apropos of the news story “Government tells NEA to pay for power generated by IPPs” (THT, January 10, Page 1), this is a win-win situation for all stakeholders — independent power producers, the government and the consumers.

The power producers henceforth can invest on power sector without any apprehension of their money turning into dust. But the NEA board has not complied with the government decision which aims to generate electricity to meet the local demand as well as sell the surplus energy generated within the country.

The “take or pay” modality was applied to Bhotekoshi and Khimti hydropower projects, both developed by the foreign investors some 15 years ago when the country was facing acute shortages of energy and no foreign and independent power producers were keen on investing in the energy sector. After some time, the provision was scrapped believing that the energy produced from 456-MW Upper Tamakoshi will be surplus after 2018. Then the reverse gear the NEA took made the IPPs apprehensive of their investment.

The idea of “take and pay” is a concept in which NEA, sole buyer of domestic energy, will pay for the energy it uses, not the volume of energy the IPPs produce. It means that the NEA will not buy the flood energy from IPPs during wet season as its plants will generate energy in full capacity. “Take or pay” is a concept in which NEA has to pay the IPPs as per the agreement reached whether it uses it or not.

Manohar Shrestha, Kathmandu

Djokovic

On the 9th of January, 2016, Novak Djokovic went on to produce one of the best performances of his lawn tennis career during the course of winning in the Qatari capital Doha. In the course of winning the ATP Qatar Open the Serbian went on to edge Andy Murray of Great Britain 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in a high-quality, action-packed match between the two best players in the world which lasted till three hours.

His victory has really underlined the fact that he’s one of the best candidates to gain victory at Australian Open which is approaching soon. Time has now arrived for even Nepalese lawn-tennis players to learn something from the Serbian.

Pratik Shrestha, Baneshwor

What next?

The constitution amendment bill has been tabled in Parliament amid obstruction by several agitating opposition parties led by the main opposition CPN- UML (“Govt. tables amendment bill in Parliament”, THT, January 9, Page 1). The recent political stalemate and confrontation have further escalated tensions among the major political parties. Now that the constitution amendment bill is in the process of deliberation in Parliament it is unclear whether the bill will be passed or made to fail given the Opposition’s stance.

Sanjog Karki, Tansen

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