Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, July 13:

Close on the heels of sections of stakeholders alleging inexplicable delay in the process of drawing up the ordinance related to the evolution of Electricity Tariff Fixation Commission (ETFC) into a high-powered regulatory commission, the Water Resources Secretary Mahendra Nath Aryal today conceded that “resistance to the move was real.”

“But the process will move ahead,” Aryal told The Himalayan Times when asked to comment on the allegations and counter-allegations on the issue. He reassured the section of the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and other vested groups, including the trade union, that “everyone will have a place to work.”

However, denying the claims that the process could take another year, Aryal insisted that “we are committed to have the draft ready by December before it is enforced by January 2006. He also said December was the deadline set for having the draft ready concerning the unbundling of the NEA and the formation of a regulatory commission.

As regards the delay in the process since the draft was initially scheduled to be ready by June with the commission taking shape by July, Aryal attributed it to “intense work underway to synthesise the suggestions which had come from stakeholders at a public hearing on April 12.”