The state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) marked the 21st anniversary of its establishment with a cumulative loss of 7 billion Nepali rupees (100 million U.S. dollars) by this year, a white paper issued Friday by the NEA said.

Unveiling the white paper, managing director Arjun Kumar Karki said the state power monopoly started incurring heavy financial losses after 2002 when privately-built power plants such as Khimti, Bhotekoshi and Chilime were connected to the national grid under the power purchase agreement (PPA).

This year alone, the NEA has suffered a loss of 2.47 billion rupees (35.28 million dollars). Karki blamed the exorbitant PPA with independent power producers (IPP), high interest rate of loans taken from the government (10.25 percent), pilferage of electricity,including technical and non-technical (24.70 percent) and non-adjustment of electricity tariff for the past five years for the NEA's loss.

He said the NEA had to pay 1.75 billion rupees (25 million dollars) to the three private power plants last year to purchase " flood energy" they produced.

Karki said: "Despite the losses, the NEA will go on as it is a government entity and it has good relations with international financial institutions."

Losses can be minimized if electricity tariff is raised and adjustment made in the pricing with IPPs and government interest rate is reduced to about 7 percent.

Earlier, Minister of State for Water Resources Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said water resources is the principal asset in laying the foundation of the country's modernization.

He said foreign investment will be encouraged for the export- oriented and big projects, while domestic investment will be mobilized for domestic consumption.

He also hoped betterment in the water resources sector, as the peace process is moving towards the right direction.

Source: Xinhua