Power Niti

Chanakya

The people in power have ensured that Nepal’s power sector policies remain confused. They like to make it just an issue for discussion as if it is the nation’s favourite pastime. The shortage of electricity in the early 1990s prompted the government to make policies that were attractive for private sector developers. As free funds started flowing, the focus is now reversed making it a business exclusively for the public sector. And as far as exports to India are concerned, the matter is still limited to seminars and conferences.

Nepal pursued an aggressive hydropower policy early 1990’s but as politicians and people in the government realized that they were not personally gaining much due to this policy they abandoned pursuing the policy further. Therefore, a country that boasted of the first private power developers in the region, has now been a laggard behind a country like Bhutan.

While the government pursued confused policies, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies added to the confusion. Promoting the private sector in the power business during the first wave of reforms, these agencies later went two steps back doling out soft loans and grants to the government owned utility.

This has made the government believe that public projects are here to stay and of course this is pleasing to the ears of the politicians and government officials.

The centre of the Nepali power sector remains NEA, the monolithic state utility. The consumers are being left to bear the brunt of its inefficiency. As an institution that has been used to provide jobs for kith and kin of people in the power league, it remains today an overpopulated powerhouse. While everyone loves to talk about RNAC being the nation’s mascot of failed government corporation, the state power utility would not be far behind. Perhaps in terms of its impact on consumers - commercial and domestic alike - it is greater.

We need to pursue clear-cut policies; we need a comprehensive power niti. If we do not need private developers then remove those lines from the speeches in seminars. If we do not need foreign investment, let us stop having junkets to foreign land in the name of power development. If we do not want the utility to be unbundled then let us stop giving this plan a lip service.

If we cannot implement the studies done by a plethora of consultants, let us stop squandering money on new studies and assessments.

Nepal needs to make up its mind, whether it wants to be in the power game or out of it. If it does, then it needs to address many issues. Private sector, not the public sector is key to infrastructure development. If that is so, the private sector needs to be genuinely approached. The utility has to be unbundled and hopefully this would be a covenant of any loan agreement the multilateral agencies sign next.

The government must stick to the job of a regulator, and if that is something it cannot do, then it can hire good people to do just that. The long pending power trade treaty with India has to be finalized.

The issue is not getting a new set of policies or legislation; it is implementing in the true spirit those that already exist. The change we need is in the mindset, or else the 84,000 MW as the hydroelectricity generating potential figure would just remain a myth for ever.