Kathmandu, September 23
Companies using electricity via trunk line will have to pay the additional fee that the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has decided to impose on industries.
The country’s three leading private sector umbrella organisations — Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI) and Nepal Chamber of Commerce — had filed a writ at Patan High Court. However, their writ petition has been scrapped.
A joint bench of judges Nahakul Subedi and Tek Narayan Kunwar has cancelled the writ petition. The court has told FNCCI, NCC and CNI to pay the NEA the additional fee it had charged on the industries.
In its verdict, the court said that the companies were being asked to pay the additional charges as it was using a special line. The court said that the enterprises were using a dedicated line and such lines had to be charged extra.
The NEA, on May 6, had announced that industries being supplied electricity through the dedicated trunk line would be charged an extra 65 per cent fee for the electricity consumed.
Immediately, industrialists had also declared that they would not pay the additional fees. They had said that the NEA’s billing was not valid and had moved to the high court saying that they would not be paying 65 per cent extra.
