Electricity tariff for next year will be reduced - Energy Minister Barshaman Pun
The high-level task force formed by the government for the overall study of the country’s energy sector has initiated its performance.
The task force held its first meeting at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation today.
A meeting of the Council of Ministers had formed the four-member taskforce comprising Energy Minister Barshaman Pun, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta, the then Finance Minister, and the Vice Chairman of National Planning Commission Dr. Pushpa Raj Kandel.
The task force is assigned to submit policy-level recommendations on the energy sector by studying the available power supplies, under-construction hydropower projects, and other issues.
The Council of Ministers will unveil policies for the implementation on the basis of the taskforce’s recommendations.
Speaking at today’s meeting, Energy Minister Pun said that the electricity tariffs would be slashed in the coming year too.
Saying that the Nepal Electricity Authority’s domestic and industrial costumers’ tariff was reduced in the current fiscal, Minister Pun stated that the power would be supplied next year in the reduced tariffs.
He was of the view that a 50 percent share of the Khimti Hydropower Project was now in government ownership and Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project would be completed within the coming winter, making the government in a position to supply power at a comparatively low rate.
Today’s meeting has assigned Secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Dinesh Kumar Ghimire, as the member-secretary of the task force while some other officials are named as the invitee members in the panel.
Likewise, the meeting also formed a technical committee under the leadership of Energy Ministry’s Joint Secretary Prabin Aryal to draft the recommendation of the energy sector.
The technical committee is given the timeline of mid-November to submit the proposed draft of the policy to the taskforce by holding discussions with the stakeholders.
