Nepal’s 80 Megawatt Electricity Import from India Turns Uncertain Due To Tariff Issues

Energy starved Nepal who is entirely dependent upon India for its electricity resources, was ready to import more 80 MW of electricity from February 16, as reports say. This had turned uncertain due to last-minute differences related to pricing issues raised by the Indian government, precisely NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam. EXIN Times had reported today saying “The tariff issue emerged after India assigned NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam to export power to Nepal. Previously, India's Power Trading Corporation (PTC) was supposed to supply electricity to Nepal. PTC had proposed selling the electricity at Rs 5.5 per unit, but NTPC has now demanded Rs 8.8 per unit”.

NEA managing director Mukesh Kafle had shared his annoyance by saying that the process was completely acceptable until a new agency was brought onboard to supply electricity to Nepal by India. Kafle added, “We expect to resolve this issue through G-2-G (Government to Government) negotiation and bring positive results”. Later NEA had appealed to the Indian Government and their related agencies to go through this issue.

Importing additional energy from their neighboring country is not an issue for Nepal if the tariff and economic rates are feasible, as reported to EXIN Times. Nepal purchases 200-230 megawatt of electricity from India per day. The additional import from India will help them to reduce load shedding by around two hours in Nepal. Kafle said in this concern that the tariff issue being a sensitive commercial deal, they cannot proceed until it is resolved. Since the import of the additional energy falls under the government’s priority, he was optimistic the issue would be resolved soon.