A meeting between the energy officials from Nepal and India has kicked off in the Indian Capital New Delhi on Thursday.

According to an official taking part in the meeting, the meeting will hold discussions on tariffs on electricity import from India, power banking and modality of cross-border transmission line among others. The meeting is likely to fix the price of electricity that Nepal buys from India, the official said.

At present, Nepal buys around 400 megawatt of electricity daily from India which increases during the dry season.

Earlier, during a meeting held between Nepali and Indian energy officials, India had proposed increasing the tariff rate of electricity supplied to Nepal by 20 per cent which Nepal had rejected.

The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) imports energy from India via 132 kV, 33 kV and 11 kV transmission lines. It pays IRs 5.55 per unit for power imported over 132 kV transmission lines and the price of energy imported over 33 kV and 11 kV lines is IRs 6 and IRs 6.45 respectively.

Likewise, the meeting will also hold discussions on the construction of New Butwal-Gorakhpur International Transmission Line. The decisions made by the meeting will be discussed during the energy secretary-level meet which will be held next month in Pokhara, Nepal.

An energy secretary-level joint steering committee meeting held earlier between the two countries in April had authorised the NEA and the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to give suggestions to the committee on implementation and funding modalities.

NEA Managing Director Kul Man Ghising is leading the Nepali team while CEA Chief Prakash Maskey is heading the Indian team in the meeting.

Similarly, the meeting is also scheduled to hold discussions on power banking between the two countries. Regarding the issue of power banking, Nepal has proposed to sell the excess electricity it produces during the monsoon season to India while it will buy electricity from India during the dry season.

Power banking refers to exchange of electricity for electricity instead of cash. Under this mechanism, one country exports electricity to the other when it has a surplus, and imports back the same amount of energy when it has a deficit.