Kathmandu: The Ministry of Energy has officially released a report detailing a massive accumulation of unpaid electricity dues for streetlights, totalling nearly 10 billion rupees.
On Monday, the Ministry published a comprehensive list of local government bodies that have failed to settle their bills, signalling a major push for financial accountability across the country’s municipal administrations.
According to the data compiled up to the end of the fiscal year 2024/25, the total principal amount owed by various local governments stands at approximately 7.95 billion rupees. However, the Ministry has applied a mandatory 25 percent late fee penalty to the outstanding balance, bringing the final required payment to a staggering 9.93 billion rupees. Local authorities have been formally directed to clear these arrears to stabilize the energy sector’s financial flow.
Kathmandu Metropolitan City leads the list with the highest volume of arrears, owing 1.98 billion rupees in principal alone, excluding the additional penalties. This specific debt has been a point of significant contention for several years, most notably during the period when current Prime Minister Balen Shah served as the city’s Mayor. At that time, the metropolitan office and the then-Executive Director of the Nepal Electricity Authority, Kulman Ghising, were involved in a high-profile dispute regarding the legitimacy and calculation of these streetlight dues.
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