By Kalyan Dev Bhattarai I wonder about the feeling of satisfaction on the selling of energy to India as an achievement, which suggests that our political leaders, government and even the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) itself are unable to grasp the value of electricity. In 2049 BS, I said in my, message as an executive chairman of Swet Bhairab Power Supply company in its profile that “People consider water as a resource, I disagree with that concept and consider water in a broader sense as a raw material which should be used optimally for the benefit of the country to produce various by-products. It may be electricity, agriculture products through irrigation, oxygen and hydrogen gases by the process of electrolysis, ionization and many others“. Electricity is not a commodity to sell, as by using it properly and optimally we can raise our economic standards and bring down the trade deficit considerably. In our country, access to electricity is limited to 6139141 households out of total households 6660841, only 92.2 percent of households have access to electricity. This suggests in total 2336532 people are still outside the reach of electricity (as per the census 2021). As per the NEA review 2022, 92.51 %  of people have access to electricity. This shows 7.49 % of the people are still outside the reach of electricity. In this ground reality to consider the achievement of selling the energy to neighboring countries is totally wrong, because to provide electricity to the unfortunate  2336532 people is also the duty of the government, and without fulfilling the duty, to export it is surely is an irresponsible act. I wonder why a government organization like NEA need a profit of 16,165 million (NEA review 2021-22), as the government is not a corporate house. By reducing the price of electricity it can attract the consumer for using the electricity for cooking and save billions of money used in the import of the gas. What is the real meaning of surplus, how electricity is considered as surplus as there are so many activities related to electricity either that are not done yet or are partially done. The proper and optimum use of our resources in our own country for the benefit of the people is important or exporting the electricity for neighbors development is reasonable and best utilization? If one says we have a surplus without using it for various plausible uses, to develop the country and reduce the trade deficit, is either foolishness or stupidity. Just calculate the amount the country can save the money and also earn from the following activities and the amount we receive the money by selling our resources. The benefit of using our own resources for industry, and other development activities better or importing it for some money is good for the nation? The best, logical way is to use our present available surplus electricity in the following way so that we could develop the country and also raise the living standard of the poor Nepalese people. Transportation: This is one of the vital sectors where electricity can be used for the benefit of the country. Making new Nepal is not possible without a good network of transportation all over the country. Our leaders neither feel shame nor accept their total failure on the reality that today after 74 years of democracy also our most of the area is not linked either by road or train. Today we are in so pathetic situation where we cannot supply our own products like apple of Mustang, Junar of Ramechhap, and food grains of the southern belt to all seventy-seven districts of the country. I feel ashamed and humiliated to accept that poor Nepalese must walk along the ups and downs of the hills to go from one part of the country to others part.   Instead of road transportation, if we introduce electric trains passing through the tunnel will be much safer and beneficial. In the same way, networks of trolleybuses in big cities like Kathmandu, Birgung, Biratnnagar, along the east-west highway and many other places will be better use of electricity than to sell it. Both means of transportation consume electricity. Industry: It would be foolish to develop the country without an industrial revolution. A plant with a daily output of 1,000 vehicles can easily use several hundred thousand megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity per year—as much as a medium-sized town. In this ground reality where we will get the required electricity if we want to industrialize the country with car plants, oxygen and hydrogen gas manufacturing, and other highly electric-consuming industries. Politicians and bureaucrats who consider the selling of electricity as an achievement answer this question or they think Nepal can develop without industrialization. Fortunately, our country has huge hydropower potential, unfortunately, our political leaders happen to be corrupt, looters and commission agents due to which neither a single policy is development-oriented nor any effort for good administration. Instead of curbing the corruption the commission agents and corrupt leaders are trying to give immunity to all corrupt in the pretext of 5 year time bound. In this ground reality wishing for the rubber industry, a few more cement industries, electrolysis of water for the production of hydrogen and oxygen, fertilizer industry, and others is only the dream of people like us. Fisheries: Fisheries development is another sector where the tail race water of hydropower can be properly used and economic benefit can be obtained. Agriculture:   Agriculture is another sector, the development of which is essential to achieve the new vision of Nepal. Nepal is an agricultural country and most of its population is engaged in it, still, the country is importing trillions of rupees worth of agricultural products. Giving subsidies to farmers enormously help farmers in the water pumping for irrigation. It will save trillions of our hard-earned foreign currencies. Irrigation through shallow tube wells especially in Tarai areas is unproductive due to heavy tariffs, especially after the removal of subsidy. To give a subsidy to the farmer is better than spending the government coffer for the medical treatment of those corrupt leaders. Cold storage and chilling house: The potentiality of chilling houses and cold storage in Nepal is very high due to transportation problems. The government is not a corporate house always to think about profit and return but its duty is to see the benefits from available resources. Being Indian slaves we cannot expect any long-term vision and any such action which are beneficial to people and the country. A reasonable tariff with some subsidy in priority sector is necessary for the proper and optimal use of available hydropower energy in our own country rather than selling it to India for some monetary benefits. Herbal plants: Nepal is very rich in herbal plants, but due to immature and wrong policy of the government neither its proper and value-added use is being implanted nor its proper monitoring is undertaken, due to which many valuable herbal plants are exported at very low prices and the same materials with some addition of value is imported in 100 times higher price. We could produce these products by using our raw materials within the country if industries get electricity at subsidised prices.   Replacement of traditional energies: In Nepal’s energy consumption, traditional energy sources continue to dominate the energy mix, accounting for 64.17% of total consumption. Fuelwood remains the primary fuel, contributing 58.53% to total fuel consumption. The share of commercial fuels decreased to 28.35%, while electricity consumption increased to 4.96%. Renewable energy sources currently contribute only 2.52% to the overall energy consumption.,giving enough scope to replace traditional energy, like wood, cow dung etc with hydropower energy. The latest census (2021) shows that only 1.2 % use electricity for cooking, and this huge gap can be easily fulfilled by subsidizing cooking, which will save billions of our hard-earned foreign currency in importing cooking gas. Similarly, 51% of households use firewood for cooking destroying our jungle. Electricity could save jungles, protect the health of women from smoke, and be helpful from an environmental point of view. Conclusion: In this short article, I cannot deal with all aspects. My stress is to use our resources first for our own use and then only consider exporting them. Define surplus -what it is. If you can not use it because of your incompetency, shortsighted and cannot industrialize your country, cannot produce the required food grains, and fruits, lack the transportation system to distribute the available production all over the country and claim as an agriculturalist country it will be only foolish and stupidity. Nepal has turned into an import-oriented country. We can significantly reduce imports by concentrating on producing items which could substitute imports. If the government would sell the surplus electricity at a subsidized tariff, we can think about producing such items at cheap prices within the country.