Ministry of Finance’s decision: NEA to collect outstanding dues related to streetlights from municipalities

KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Finance has directed the Nepal Electricity Authority to collect outstanding dues related to streetlights from municipalities. The decision was made following the ministry’s decision on October last week, which instructed the authority to recover the remaining dues from various government offices, including streetlights.

The total outstanding amount for electricity dues, especially for streetlights, is the highest among government offices. The outstanding dues for streetlights from 331 municipalities amount to NPR 6.8 billion, mostly from the fiscal year 2017.

The authority, in its third financial restructuring proposal, had mentioned the outstanding dues related to streetlights, including those in the name of government offices, for reconciliation with the government. However, Executive Director Kul Man Ghising revealed that the Ministry of Finance has not been able to reconcile the government agency’s outstanding dues and has decided to recover the amount directly from the respective offices.

“We had proposed reconciling the outstanding dues between the government and the authority based on the amounts owed by various government agencies. However, the Ministry of Finance has decided to recover the outstanding amount directly from the respective offices,” said Executive Director Ghising. “Based on this decision, we are advancing the process of recovering the outstanding dues.”

The authority had requested a 45-day deadline to settle the outstanding dues related to streetlights, as announced publicly on June. The authority had also requested municipalities to settle the outstanding dues for streetlights through distribution centers in their respective areas and had initiated cutting off the power lines of non-compliant municipalities, as mentioned by Manoj Silwal, Executive Director of Distribution and Customer Service Directorate of NEA.