Kathmandu : Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Managing Director Kulman Ghising has dismissed the allegation that the Authority made a profit by invoicing customers for dedicated and trunk lines usage.

Making public the progress report of the completion of the third year of his second term at a press meet organized at the Office of the Authority, MD Ghising denied making a profit by invoicing customers for dedicated and trunk lines usage.

After completing a four-year term, Ghising joined as the NEA MD on August 9, 2021 again, following a hiatus of one year. His second term will expire after one year.

Upon the completion of three years, he obtained 94.23 and 98.94 percentage of marks in his performance evaluation in the Fiscal Year 2078/79 and 2079/80, respectively, he shared. The performance evaluation of the FY 2080/81 is underway.

Ghising said, “The electrification has reached 99 percent from 89 percent 8 years ago, the number of electricity consumers has increased to 5,935,000.

Similarly, 8 years ago, 3 billion 320 million units of electricity were consumed per year, which now has increased to 10 billion 230 million units, and per capita electricity consumption has increased from 131 units to 400 units, he informed.

He also claimed that the Authority has been continuously making profits, of late.

“The Authority, which posted a net loss of Rs 8 billion 890 million in FY 2072/73 BS, earned a net profit of Rs 1.5 billion in FY 2073/74 BS,” he said, “The net profit reached up to 13 billion and 310 million in the last FY.”

The NEA had an accumulated deficit of Rs 34 billion 610 million eight yaears ago. The situation has now drastically improved. It has now an accumulated profit of Rs 47 billion 410 million, said Ghising, dismissing the allegation that NEA’s profit was merely a paper gain artificially inflated by invoicing customers for dedicated and trunk lines usage.

He said, “In the past 8 years, the Authority has made a profit of Rs 82 billion after deducting the accumulated loss of Rs 35 billion and bringing it to a profit of Rs 47 billion. It’s not because of invoicing customers for dedicated and trunk lines usage. Rs 82 billion profit is from the annual audit report prepared by the Auditor General, with the assistance of three CA firms. How to call it faulty?”