Indian Embassy refutes power cut reports

KATHMANDU: The Embassy of India in Kathmandu today said its attention has been drawn to a media report alleging that load shedding had increased in Nepal because India ignored its commitment to supply power to Nepal and didn’t grant permission to Nepal Electricity Authority to upgrade the transmission line on Indian territory.“The claims made in the report are factually incorrect, misleading and without any basis,” the embassy said in a statement today.

Earlier, one daily had said the Indian side had ignored its commitment to supply more electricity to Nepal.

The embassy said that the change of conductors in Kushaha (Nepal) – Kataiya (India) 132 KV Cross-Border Transmission line was one of the medium term measures to improve the power situation in Nepal. This had been identified by an India-Nepal joint team of technical experts in November 2011.

In July, NEA had requested India’s consent to re-conductor the Indian portion of transmission line through a Nepali contractor. According to the mission, NEA had requested permission for the Nepali contractor to transport the required construction equipment and materials from Nepal to the work site in India. NEA had also sought exemption of customs duty on third country origin conductor, which would be installed at the Indian segment of the transmission line.

“Officials of this embassy have explained to NEA officials for the last one month that for the proposed export of construction equipment and materials, an Indian importer having Import Export Code (IEC) would be required to be appointed,” the embassy added. “For making any import into India and also for considering customs exemption on such imports, an importer with a valid IEC would be mandatorily required.”

The Indian embassy stressed that NEA has not responded to this, despite repeated requests. “The matter has now been formally communicated to the Government of Nepal.

The Indian mission can process the NEA request with the Government of India only after receipt of this information from NEA,” it added. It further said NEA has the option of expediting the contract by complying with existing legal requirements in India.