16 November, Kathmandu. With the beginning of electrical energy export, the revenue of Nepal Electricity Authority has began rising at a terrific fee. Due to this, customers are demanding discount in electrical energy tariff.
However, the Nepal Electricity Authority is standing in favor of not revising the tariff, saying that giant investments needs to be made within the development, growth and strengthening of hydropower tasks and distribution and transmission infrastructure. This has sparked a debate whether or not to distribute the earnings of the authority to the individuals or to speculate them.
Nepal Electricity Authority made a revenue of 8.5 billion rupees within the first three months of the present monetary yr (FY) 2079/80. In the unrevised monetary assertion as much as final July, August and October, the authority that earned 32.98 billion rupees spent solely 24.48 billion rupees.
Although it has to purchase electrical energy from India in winter, it’s seen that the authority could make a revenue of round 20 billion rupees within the present monetary yr. Last yr, the authority made a revenue of 16 billion rupees.
This yr, the authority’s revenue has elevated at a excessive fee as electrical energy value 6.17 billion rupees has been exported to India in a interval of three months. It is for certain that the authority will export electrical energy in giant portions to India in May and June.
In the monetary yr 2072/73, the authority had an annual lack of 8 billion 89 crores and has been repeatedly making earnings within the following years. Now the graph of the authority’s revenue is seen to rise an increasing number of.
In such a scenario, there’s a demand that the authority ought to scale back the electrical energy tariff. From home to industrial prospects, they’re saying that electrical energy consumption needs to be inspired by decreasing tariff charges.
Consumer rights activist Jyoti Baniyan says that the Electricity Regulatory Commission itself has not been capable of decide the speed of electrical energy tariff in a factual and dependable method. He stated that the tariff is set in response to the proposal of the Electricity Authority and that’s the reason the tariff has not been diminished to the anticipated fee.
‘Electricity has develop into very costly, if it was cheaper, the compulsion to import cooking gasoline from India costing 60 billion a yr can be eliminated,’ he says, ‘nonetheless, now we have to be happy with getting electrical energy 24 hours a day, individuals would have rebelled due to this tariff. ‘
The industrialists have repeatedly questioned from the general public discussion board why the electrical energy which is bought cheaply in India is dear in Nepal. They have stated that to scale back the price of working the trade and enhance electrical energy consumption inside the nation, the tariff fee have to be diminished.
An official of the Federation of Nepal Chamber of Commerce and Industry complains that the authority has not been listened to though it has repeatedly requested the authority to scale back tariffs and provides advantages to the trade. “If the tariffs had been to be diminished, trade would have been added right here, manufacturing would have elevated, electrical energy consumption would have gone up,” stated the official, “however the authority doesn’t wish to talk about the tariff discount.”
Even although the federal government has been repeatedly requested to scale back the tariff, the industrialists say that the authorities are turning away. They argue that if the electrical energy tariff is diminished, the manufacturing value of products exported to India will lower and the competitiveness will enhance.
Profit scenario
Financial Year Net Profit (Rs) Loss (Rs) 2072/73 8 billion 89 crore 2073/74 1 billion 50 crore 2074/75 3 billion 44 crore 2075/76 9 billion 81 crore 2076/77 11 billion 75 crore 2077/78 6 9 billion 2078/79 16 billion 16 billion 2079/80 (for 3 months) 8 billion 50 billion
Source: Nepal Electricity Authority
Authority emphasis on funding
The authority is in favor of not decreasing the electrical energy tariff instantly because it has diminished the electrical energy tariff repeatedly for 3 years. Ghisingh, govt director of the authority, says that the tariff has been diminished by about 20-25 % in thrice.
He stated that the authority has distributed a possible revenue of about 20 billion yearly to the individuals, and he stated that it’s essential to convert the long run revenue into funding. According to him, the authority can be on the lookout for giant investments to strengthen electrical energy distribution, transmission, and commerce.
Ghising claims that Nepal’s present electrical energy tariff fee is the most cost effective of many of the SAARC international locations besides Bhutan.
The authority has been arguing that it can’t be referred to as costly as electrical energy is given to industries at a mean of Rs 8 per unit. The authority claims that decreasing the tariff shouldn’t be related because the authority is offering electrical energy on the identical worth as if it had been bought from personal hydropower tasks.
The authority concluded that 3/4 trillion rupees needs to be invested inside 4/5 years to extend electrical energy consumption and supply dependable and high quality electrical energy to customers.
Executive Director Ghising says that for the reason that authorities of Nepal is ready to get sufficient finances as a result of restricted assets, it’s spending yearly’s revenue on increasing and strengthening the infrastructure for manufacturing, transmission and distribution and can proceed to extend it.
“We are solely charging Rs 30 demand payment for many who devour as much as 20 models of electrical energy, this has benefited the fundamental stage individuals,” Ghising stated, “The extra individuals who devour greater than 20 models, the much less the tariff is, so now the tariff is progressive.”
Ghising says that the authority’s revenue needs to be understood as an ‘funding’ supply for infrastructure growth. He argues that if that is understood as a revenue and used accordingly, the plan to make electrical energy infrastructure customer-friendly and trendy and enhance consumption within the nation won’t ever succeed.
Ghising is of the opinion that solely after modernizing the system, electrical energy tariff could be diminished on the idea of revenue.
According to him, for the reason that system shouldn’t be sturdy, there are various challenges from transmission to distribution system. Such issues are frequent within the authority’s substations. When there’s a downside, there isn’t any infrastructure to provide electrical energy to the affected areas by way of different substations.
While the authority is promoting electrical energy value round 6.5 crores of rupees day by day in India, because of the weak point of the system, the frequent individuals within the nation should dwell in the dead of night. The authorities, which is requesting to extend electrical energy consumption, has not proven curiosity in infrastructure growth and upgrading. The authority doesn’t have the choice to take away the issue that arises all of a sudden within the system which has reached a tough scenario to deal with the naturally elevated electrical energy consumption.
There is stress on the authority to enhance the distribution and transmission traces as there are issues within the transformer. The authority has not taken ahead the work to resolve such issues which have elevated with the demand for electrical energy. Sometimes there’s a dispute about compensation, forest and tree chopping, and typically there’s a native impediment. The authority has not even been capable of begin the country-wide infrastructure growth work to handle the rising demand within the system.
According to the technicians of the authority, the substations are liable to ‘shutdown’ as a result of rising issues within the distribution system working below excessive stress. They say that though the under-construction infrastructure can’t be accomplished shortly, the best way to resolve the issue is tough.
Ghisingh, govt director of the authority, says that ‘ring circuit’ has develop into indispensable to make the facility distribution line dependable. According to him, if one substation or line is minimize as a result of an issue, there isn’t any system that may instantly present the road in response to the demand from one other substation.
He says that the work of creating the distribution infrastructure underground and making it dependable also needs to be carried out at a quick tempo. “We should do a number of work from revenue for a number of years that we couldn’t do as a result of lack of finances,” Ghising stated, “It shouldn’t be sufficient to make infrastructure accordingly by projecting the demand of the following few a long time.”
Not solely the distribution, the capability of the transmission line is weak. There is a scenario the place the authority is left with no alternative when there’s a large demand without delay or when one thing occurs. Although a big funding is required, because of the small finances, the authority has not been capable of construct traces and substations as required.
There is a dispute concerning the compensation and route for the infrastructure that’s going to be constructed. Despite the addition of distribution transformers, the issue of intermittent energy provide continues because of the incapacity to extend the capability of transmission traces and substations.
The authority’s plan to construct transmission traces and substations across the valley continues to be incomplete. Officials of the Authority say that typically when there’s a downside within the substation, this cause can be solved.
To modernize electrical energy provide in Kathmandu, tasks resembling development of recent substations, automation of present substations, undergrounding of electrical wires, addition and strengthening of recent feeders and transformers are being applied. The authority has stated that transmission and distribution system infrastructure is being constructed with short-term, medium-term and long-term plans to devour 2,000 megawatts of electrical energy within the valley.
Distribution and infrastructure needs to be constructed on the identical fee because the demand for electrical energy. According to Ghisingh, govt director of the authority, there can be issues after a number of years if the distribution capability within the valley shouldn’t be elevated to three,000 megawatts. Ghising argues that as a result of there’s a lack of funding for such works, revenue is necessary for the authority.
“Our focus is on spending the cash obtained from the revenue on increasing and strengthening the transmission and distribution infrastructure to extend electrical energy consumption, present dependable and high quality electrical energy to the customers,” he stated, “We plan to strengthen the system by investing in giant hydropower tasks as properly.”