Electricity emerges as key export item of Nepal
KATHMANDU, Sept. 20– Nepal sold electricity worth over 56 million U.S. dollars to India in nearly four months, as power is emerging as a key export item of the Himalayan country. “As we can sell electricity in India till December, export earnings from power will be much higher,” Suresh Bhattarai, NEA’s spokesman, told Xinhua. The Indian authorities allowed Nepal to sell…
KATHMANDU, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) — Nepal sold electricity worth over 56 million U.S. dollars to India in nearly four months, as power is emerging as a key export item of the Himalayan country.
The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) said in a statement on Tuesday that it exported power valued at 7.19 billion Nepali rupees (56.19 million U.S. dollars) to India from early June to mid-September.
“As we can sell electricity in India till December, export earnings from power will be much higher,” Suresh Bhattarai, NEA’s spokesman, told Xinhua.
The earnings have made electricity Nepal’s seventh largest export item after soybean oil, palm oil, yarn, woolen carpet, jute and readymade garment.
In the current 2022-23 fiscal year which began in mid-July, the NEA aims to earn 16 billion Nepali rupees (125 million dollars) through electricity export, which may help make electricity No. 3 export item of the country.
“We hope to earn more than 30 billion Nepali rupees (234 million dollars) in the 2023-24 fiscal year through the export of electricity,” Kulman Ghising, NEA’s managing director, told Xinhua.
Nepal has been in a power deficit for a long time, but it started to produce surplus energy after the country’s largest 456 megawatts (MW) Upper Tamakoshi Hydroelectric Project started to generate electricity in July last year.
The Indian authorities allowed Nepal to sell electricity in the Indian market through a competitive bidding process only in November last year, and Nepal is permitted now by India to export 364MW of power generated by six hydropower projects.
The increasing earnings from power export have helped Nepal to maintain adequate forex reserves and reduce trade deficit with India, said Ghising. Enditem
