Electricity sales: a false hope for economy.

Saying it won’t increase consumption; a proper policy is needed.

1. For how many years have we been saying that electricity is going to waste? Has the price actually decreased? Why do we still have a Step-Up Tariff system that exploits the public? The more electricity people consume, the more expensive it gets. Is this how you expect consumption to increase? Isn’t it time to implement a policy where higher consumption leads to lower rates?

2. What have we learned about using electricity beyond just lighting? Even if electricity were given for free starting tomorrow, lazy Nepalis would only leave the lights on 24/7. Do we have any other consumption strategies in place?

3. Using locally produced electricity would contribute more to GDP than selling it abroad, yet India is rapidly constructing petroleum pipelines while we happily queue up to collect fuel. Even to sell oil, they lay pipelines; even to export electricity, they establish transmission lines. What are we doing?

4. Municipalities are fighting over payments for streetlights. If the Nepal Electricity Authority is making a profit, what benefit does the public actually get?

5. Instead of letting 1,000 MW of electricity go to waste tomorrow, why not distribute 100 MW for free today and develop consumption habits? Consumption won’t increase just by talking about it—Nepalis need to be accustomed to using electricity.

The current policy seems to be: "Sell rice and buy beaten rice to eat."("धान वेचउ, चिउरा बेसाएर खाऊ")
Instead of using our electricity, we buy petroleum to run our vehicles and gas to cook our meals.

Do we even need electricity in Nepal? Even if given for free, lazy Nepalis would just leave the lights on all day. That’s all they know. No book has taught us how to utilize electricity, nor has the government or the responsible authorities.

The only concern everyone seems to have is that Nepal has an excessive amount of electricity going to waste. Instead of finding ways to increase domestic consumption, the focus is on selling it cheaply to neighboring countries to earn some money.