Over one million disconnections last year: Kanchana

• Says proposal on electricity tariff revision to be submitted to PUCSL soon

By Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera

Some 1,064,400 electricity supplies were disconnected within the year 2023 due to defaulted payments, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara said yesterday.  He told Parliament that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) had disconnected 965,566 supplies while the Lanka Electricity Company Limited (LECO) had disconnected 98,834 supplies.  

The Minister said this while responding to a question raised by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa.  

The Minister also admitted the statement issued by the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) that they had not received any proposal on electricity tariff reduction and said that the proposal would be submitted to the PUCSL within the next few days.  

He told Parliament that the proposal on electricity tariff reduction was to be submitted to the director board of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) yesterday (09) for approval and that it would be submitted to the PUCSL soon after approval.  

Responding to a question raised by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa about the delay in submitting the proposal, the Minister said calculations based on the balance sheet ending on December 31, 2023 commenced on January 1.  

The Minister said after the proposal is submitted to the PUCSL, the PUCSL will publish the proposals to obtain public opinion within 21 days as per the law and would approve the final price reduction mechanism.    

• PUCSL to publish proposals to obtain public opinion within 21 days as per the law and would approve the final price reduction mechanism