The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has cut off power supply to 34 companies after they failed to settle outstanding bills for the use of dedicated and trunk lines.
The NEA said the state-owned power utility was forced to disconnect lines after the companies did not pay the bills within the given deadline.
NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising had appealed to all the concerned companies to clear the arrears by Thursday.
The state-owned power utility on October 10 had issued a 15-day deadline to 49 industries with a warning that the power supply would be cut off if the arrears were not cleared within the given deadline.
The deadline expired on Thursday.
Among them, only six companies turned up and agreed to clear the dues in instalments. They will now pay arrears in instalments.
Two among those defaulters are state-owned industries – Hetauda Cement and Udayapur Cement Industries Ltd.
According to the NEA, seven companies have moved the court for seeking a stay order on the authority's payment directives during this period so as to avoid paying the electricity bills.
Earlier, the Authority had disconnected lines to six industries. The lines were later reconnected following the direction of the cabinet for three months. The three-month deadline expired on Thursday.
When the country underwent an acute load-shedding, these companies had used the electricity through dedicated and trunk lines. They have not paid the bills for the electricity used during that period.
The total amount of unpaid electricity bills from these 49 companies is approximately 6.43 billion rupees, the NEA said.
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