26 November 2022 12:00 am Views - 114
By Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera
Claiming that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) was incurring a loss of Rs. 423 billion even after the recent tariff revision, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said yesterday that increasing electricity tariffs is a must for the continuation of power supply.
He told Parliament that the generation cost at present is Rs. 889 billion and that only Rs. 400 billion was received even after the tariff increase in August.
The Minister said the recent tariff increase was not what was requested by the CEB and added that the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) approved only Rs. 250 billion whereas the CEB requested Rs. 600 billion.
He said the CEB was spending Rs. 56.90 per unit as generation cost whereas only Rs. 29 was collected from the consumers.
The Minister accused PUCSL of not presenting a generation plan and said it was the duty of the commission to prepare a generation plan and to see that it is implemented. He said if the PUCSL had increased electricity tariffs to cover the generation cost from 2013, people would not have undergone huge tariff hikes at once.
He said the Ministry presented a Cabinet Paper last week to allow PUCSL to revise electricity tariffs in January and July every year.