Kathmandu, March 18

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has started halting power supply to the industries that have large outstanding dues.

Today, NEA cut the supply to Raghupati Jute Mill and Reliance Spinning Mills stating they have not cleared their pending bills totalling nearly Rs 1.70 billion for electricity supplied through dedicated feeder and trunk lines.

Rajiv Kumar Singh, distribution head of Biratnagar office of NEA, said Raghupati Jute Mill has not paid Rs 155 million, while Reliance Spinning Mills has Rs 1.5 billion in outstanding dues.

“Earlier, both the mills had agreed to pay their remaining dues in instalment basis, but as they have not paid any amount since the last four months, we have cut their power supply.”

NEA has said that the electricity will be supplied to the errant mills once they clear their dues.

Earlier, the NEA board had decided to collect existing dues from 250 dedicated feeder and trunk line users.

NEA had asked the industries to clear their accumulated dues since fiscal year 2016-17, which has amounted to around Rs 11 billion.

NEA had issued the bills to enterprises for energy consumed through dedicated lines when the country was facing rolling blackouts.

On May 6, the private sector umbrella organisations — Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Confederation of Nepalese Industries and Nepal Chamber of Commerce — had said that they would not pay the additional fee that NEA had imposed on industries for the use of dedicated feeder and trunk lines.

They had filed petitions at various higher courts, but the verdicts were in favour of the NEA.