Bara, July 5

Most government offices in Bara district headquarters Kalaiya have not cleared their electricity tariff to Nepal Electricity Authority Office for long.

The District Administration Office, the Kalaiya Sub-metropolitan City, the District Public Health Office, the District Hospital, the District Education Office, among other government offices, have not cleared their tariff worth millions of rupees. Some of the offices have not cleared their dues for one year, while some of them have not paid their electricity bill for the past five years. The District Administration Office is yet to pay Rs 4.4 lakh.

According to Nepal Electricity Authority’s Kalaiya distribution centre Chief Binod Prasad Chaudhary, the pending electricity tariff of the Chief District Officer’s quarters is Rs 1.6 lakh.

Kalaiya Sub-metropolitan City has the highest pending tariff amount of Rs 2 million. However, the sub-metropolis has shown apathy towards clearing the due amount. Besides, the District Forest Office Kathgaun, the Area Health Post, Gunjabhawanipur and the Chhoti Customs Office, Matiarwa also have not cleared their power tariff. These offices are yet to clear tariff amounting to around Rs 4 lakh, according to Kaliya distribution centre’s Bigyan Kumar Karna.

Likewise, only 40 per cent of consumers have cleared their tariff while the remaining 60 per cent are yet to pay their bills at Kalaiya distribution centre. “The centre collects Rs 25 million, while the office is yet to collect Rs 420 million tariff from consumers,” said Chaudhary.

It is also said that almost 50 per cent of the total electricity distributed from the centre is leaked.

Only 45,381 households have installed meter boxes in their residences because most still pilfer electricity. The distribution centre had taken action against 469 persons for using power illegally this fiscal. “Around Rs 4.5 million revenue was collected from offenders,” said Chaudhary.

Though the region has a demand of 23 MW power, only 11 MW power has been distributed from Kalaiya distribution centre so far.