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| Sunday, 27 March 2005 |
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Editorial
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Reform of monsters... Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Trade Union Convenor Ananda Nimalaratne responding to Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama’s views on CEB expressed in an interview published in Sunday Observer of March 20 says: The Minister had stated that the CEB has become a burden to the economy and therefore it has to be restructured. As it is not privatisation it is wrong for the employees to oppose the move. He had also said that the cost of a unit of electricity could also be reduced by Rs. 2.50. Who caused the electricity board which earned a profit of more than Rs. 3000 million in 1999, to be a burden to the economy? It is the past regimes and the present one which comply to the letter the advice given by the international financial bodies to the detriment of public corporations which Minister Sarath Amunugama also represents! Despite the assurance that a human face would be grafted to the open economy all attempts were made to privatize such national assets as CEB under the guise of restructuring. The Acts drafted in that connection contains provision to sell the stocks of the companies to be set-up afresh. However, if privatisation was not envisaged provision should have been made to the contrary. Although Mr. Amunugama is not aware it was the CEB which came to the rescue of the treasury during financial straits. The treasury and CEB employees could well recollect this. Were it not the governments which Dr. Amunugama also represented that reversed the above achievements by giving up or postponing generation of low-cost electricity and paving the way for the construction of high cost private sector electricity generation scheme and purchasing their out put? Without rectifying these, is it proper for him to make statements of this nature. The other important matter is the claim that the cost of an electricity unit could be reduced by Rs. 2.50 as a result of restructuring. It would be more appropriate if he himself explained it! Even if the total debt of Rs. 8 billion is settled, the trade unions are ready to prove that the cost of a unit could be reduced only by one rupee. Due to the escalating oil prices the generation cost exceeds Rs. 11, the loss being Rs. 3 per unit. Even after the debt is settled, the net reduction per unit would be Rs. 1/- the loss (per unit) exceeding Rs. 2/-. Even if it is assured that the unit cost would go down by Rs. 2.50 as claimed by the Minister himself, the loss will continue. Therefore restructuring is no solution. We have come to know that the urgency to restructure the CEB is the need to obtain a loan of US$ 60 million by making the CEB, the collateral. As the proposed restructuring through mortgaging the CEB to international financial corporations for 60 Ml. dollars really amounts to privatisation, the CEB unions together with its employees would resist the move.
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Editorial | Security | Produced by Lake House |
