News
Plan expenditure reduction instead of tariff hike- Ministry to CEB
The Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy has directed the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to draft a plan to reduce expenditure in the coming months, to minimise the economic impact from the decision not to increase electricity tariffs, the Sunday Times learns.
The Ministry this week announced it had rejected a proposal by the CEB to increase electricity tariffs. This was after the CEB’s Technical Committee recommended to the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), the country’s power sector regulator, that the Board needed to increase revenue by 5%, to recover an estimated revenue gap arising from an expected rise in generation costs during the six-month period from October 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017.
Director (Development) of the Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy, Sulakshana Jayawardena said the Ministry’s view was that rather than increase electricity tariffs, the CEB needed to find ways to reduce its expenditure, which would, in turn, narrow the revenue gap.
Accordingly, discussions are being held between the Ministry and the CEB.
In a related development, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is due to hold discussions with the CEB Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) on Tuesday, as part of a wider programme to find solutions to a looming power crisis.
CEBEU President, Athula Wanniarachchi, told the Sunday Times that they would use Tuesday’s meeting to highlight concerns regarding the Government’s decision to deviate from the CEB’s Long Term Generation Expansion Plan. He acknowledged this mainly pertains to the predicted economic impact from the decision not to build coal power plants in Sampur.
“If the Government won’t allow the CEB to increase tariffs, the Treasury would have to pump money to the CEB. This in turn would require more taxes on the public,” he claimed.