9 December 2024 07:48 am Views - 57
By Kelum Bandara
Despite request by the ruling party - affiliated Ceylon Electricity Employees’ Union, the director board of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has not approved bonus for its workers this year, an informed source said.
Union’s General Secretary Ranjan Jayalal requested for bonus this year. Earlier, he said that he leads the trade union affiliated to the government and therefore there was no need of street battle to get bonus payment for employees this year.
However, the CEB has not approved any bonus for its employees this year.
The CEB also ruled out any reduction of electricity tariffs for the first half of next year.
The CEB attributed it to the lack of low cost energy sources to fulfil the additional requirement of one billion electricity units next year compared to this year.
The estimated electricity requirement is 17.5 billion units in 2025. Hydro and coal capacities are reached to its maximum due to obvious reasons -12 billion units - and the the balance is to be sourced from a mix of renewable energy and oil. Considering the available and ongoing renewable energy development, approximately three billion units are to be sourced from oil.
Two- thirds of the electricity bill is from the generation cost, according to Pubudu Niroshan, the Director General of Power Sector Reforms Secretariat.
He said the only solution is to start and speed up competitive renewable energy additions - wind and solar - and then the LNG as a transitional fuel.
Asked about this year’s profit of CEB, he said Rs.112 billion had been used by August 31 this year payable as loans owed to institutions such as the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC).
“Only Rs. 41 billion is left as the revenue difference in 2024. It is given to the consumers in this tariff revision,” he said.