Govt compelled to revise power tariff

by Jaliya Wijeyekoon

Senior Minister Athauda Seneviratne told the Sunday Observer that the Government was reluctantly compelled to revise the electricity tariffs to provide an uninterrupted and efficient supply of electricity islandwide.

He said that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) incurred huge losses during the past number of years mainly due to the fact that the Board provided electricity to consumers at subsidised prices.

The CEB is heavily indebted to State banks and the banks find it difficult to provide loans to the Board continuously.

The Government is going ahead with its development projects and supplying electricity to all rural and remote areas which involves a huge amount of funds.

CEB employees have been demanding a substantial salary increase for the past number of years and the Board Management has to consider their request too.

Due to all these constraints, the Government was compelled to revise electricity tariffs to provide a better service, he said.

However, according to an analysis by the Public Utilities Commission it had been revealed that even after the latest revision of the electricity tariffs the Government still incurs a loss of Rs. 30,000 million annually.