While the tariff reduction plan will cheer households, NEA must have a strategy soon to divert power to more productive areas

For the Nepalis who have been ensured reliable power supply since the last few years, there is even better news, and it sounds almost too good to be true. Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is proposing reducing power tariffs levied on households. The draft proposing the tariff reduction is set to be approved at the NEA’s board meeting this week, which will then be forwarded for final approval to the Nepal Electricity Regulatory Commission. The government’s bid to encourage households to consume more power comes in the wake of the surplus energy that will be generated by a host of new hydroelectricity projects from this fiscal year. The draft of the government power utility has proposed slashing the per unit rate with the rise in consumption in sharp contrast to the present provision that raises the rate as consumption surges. What’s more, for those households using only 20 units of electricity a month, 10 units will come free. The Rs 3 service fee charged on a unit of electricity for those households in this low consumption bracket has also been dropped.

Just ten years back, no one could have imagined the current scenario. It was a time when residents even in the capital saw power outages lasting upto 16-18 hours a day, forcing them to rely on the expensive inverters and other gadgets for light. NEA’s draft proposal will benefit almost everyone in the country, as almost 96 per cent of the population has access to electricity today. Only about 1.3 million inhabitants of a handful of districts in Karnali province will not profit. With the new policy, one can expect households to switch to electricity for cooking as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will become dearer with the government doing away with the subsidy provided on it. This will have a favourable impact on our trade as Nepal imports LPG gas worth more than Rs 35 billion a year.

While the NEA’s tariff reduction plan is bound to cheer households and also big consumers of dedicated and trunk lines in the near future, it must have a strategy – and very soon – to divert power to more productive areas. It makes little sense to be producing surplus energy and not knowing what to do with it. While a host of countries have shown interest in buying surplus power from Nepal, it is also time the government thought of utilising some of the energy to produce goods in the country itself. Why not one large fertiliser or an aluminium smelting plant in the country? They will guzzle nearly all of the energy to be generated by the power projects under construction. It’s also time to promote electric vehicles wholeheartedly, which will further cut down on our fuel import bills. It’s unfortunate that the government has just scrapped a deal to buy 300 electric buses that would have also improved the quality of air in Kathmandu. The NEA has, however, done a good job to call tenders for setting up a handful of charging stations, but they are too few to make any impact. Electricity is the foundation for the development of all sectors of the economy, including industry, agriculture and tourism. But how we develop depends on how judiciously we use it.

Leprosy control

Though Nepal declared the elimination of leprosy in 2010, it continues to haunt 17 districts, most of them in the Tarai. The burden of leprosy is constantly rising in the southern districts of the country, with 3,000 new cases being diagnosed annually. Province 2 has the highest number of leprosy cases. Leprosy Control and Disability Management Section estimates that the disease has so far caused disabilities in over 31,000 people, and the number of those undergoing a complete multi-drugs course stands at more than 192,000.

Study shows that poor knowledge, an unfavourable attitude and stigma are a hindrance to leprosy control, forcing the affected ones to live in isolation or conceal the disease, leading to delayed diagnosis and treatment. The knowledge and attitude of the community towards leprosy remains poor. Positive change in the community’s perception towards leprosy is a must for its prevention and control. The federal and local governments should develop advocacy programmes to make information, education and communication materials accessible to the general public to enhance people’s knowledge regarding leprosy, its cause, symptoms, transmission, prevention and treatment.