The Nepal Electricity Authority on Friday decided to resume power supply to factories despite their outstanding dues.

A meeting of the board of directors of the state-owned power authority decided to that end following a direction from the government to build pressure to recover the dues.

A Cabinet meeting on Tuesday had directed the NEA to resume power supply to two dozen factories. The meeting also formed a high-powered committee to probe the ongoing dispute over the dues to be paid by several factories that had power supplied to them via dedicated and trunk lines.

When the general public faced prolonged power cuts in the country until a few years back, such factories were provided round-the-clock electricity with dedicated feeders and trunk lines.

A dedicated feeder involves electricity supply through a separate line directly from a substation. On the other hand, a trunk line delivers electricity from the transmission line to the factory by installing a transformer inside the factory itself.

NEA claims that the arrangement was made for some factories on the condition that they pay premium tariff (more than normal tariff) but factory owners are claiming they wouldn't pay the claimed dues as they didn’t receive regular supply.

According to the power utility, it needs to recover over Rs22 billion in unpaid dues from 61 consumers, with one—Jagdamba Steel—alone owing as much as Rs4.14 billion.