The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Board has decided to reconnect the electricity supply to industries that had their power lines disconnected on October 24.

Deepak Khadka, minister for energy, water resources, and irrigation said that the Board meeting held in Kathmandu on Tuesday decided to resume power supply to the ‘defaulting’ industries.

Earlier, the Cabinet, in its meeting on Sunday, had directed that power be restored within 24 hours and outstanding dues be collected within 15 days based on the Time of Day (ToD) meter system.

The NEA had previously disconnected power for industries with outstanding dues on dedicated and trunk lines. Following the Cabinet’s directive, the NEA Board’s decision will enable the reconnection of power to 28 industries that had their lines cut due to unpaid dues.

According to the NEA, the industrialists owe roughly Rs8.25 billion–Rs 6.65 billion-plus a 25 percent fine. The authority first estimated that industrialists who used the exclusive feeder and trunk lines for energy owed almost Rs22 billion. However, the arrears were adjusted when the government-appointed commission’s advice was taken into account to resolve the disagreement.

On May 6, the commission under Girish Chandra Lal, a former Supreme Court justice, submitted its report on the resolution of the tariff dispute over dedicated and trunk lines to the erstwhile Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government. The commission had been formed to resolve the dispute over the calculation of the amount of money the industrialists needed to pay the NEA for using power supply through dedicated and trunk lines from July 2015 to June 2020.