Nepal, Electricity and Trade !!

Nepal, a country rich in water resources, holds immense potential for electricity production. Rather than selling electricity abroad, if domestic consumption could be increased, it would make a significant contribution to the country’s economy.

Some questions that Nepal’s electricity and trade regulatory bodies and the government need to answer:

1. It has been years since the claim that electricity is being wasted, but how much has the electricity tariff been reduced to encourage domestic consumption? Why is the Step-Up Tariff system, which essentially exploits the people, still in place? The more electricity people consume, the more expensive it gets—how does that encourage consumption? Isn't it high time to introduce a system where higher consumption leads to lower tariffs?

2. Apart from lighting bulbs, who has actually been taught how to use electricity effectively? Even if electricity were provided for free starting tomorrow, would we, the lazy Nepalis, do anything other than keeping the lights on 24/7? What other measures have been introduced to boost electricity consumption?

3. Increasing domestic consumption would contribute more to GDP than selling electricity abroad. But instead, petroleum pipelines are rapidly being built by India, and we are happily receiving fuel. Even India needs infrastructure to sell fuel—it needs to lay pipelines, just as it needs infrastructure to transmit electricity.

4. Streetlights are being cut off due to payment disputes with municipalities. If the electricity authority is making a profit, how exactly does that benefit the people?

5. Instead of worrying about 1,000 megawatts going to waste tomorrow, why not distribute 100 megawatts for free today to cultivate the habit of using electricity? Increasing consumption requires habit formation, not just supplying electricity.

The current policy seems to be: "Sell paddy, buy flattened rice to eat"("धान वेचउ, चिउरा बेसाएर खाऊ"). We sell electricity and then buy fuel to run our vehicles, cook food using gas, and continue being dependent on imported energy. Why does Nepal even need electricity? We, the lazy Nepalis, will only leave our lights on all day if given free electricity—that’s all we know. Neither books, nor the government, nor the concerned authorities have taught us how to utilize electricity productively. Instead, everyone seems obsessed with the idea that Nepal has too much electricity, it is going to waste, and it should be sold cheaply to our neighbors just to earn a little money.