News
Supplementary estimate of Rs. 238.9 billion to settle CEB, SLA debts
View(s):By Bandula Sirimanna
SriLankan Airlines (SLA) and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) will together receive Rs. 238.9 billion from the Treasury to settle their debts, enabling the two entities to restructure their balance sheets ahead of their divestment process.A top official said the Finance Ministry would present this supplementary estimate in Parliament shortly, seeking its approval to allocate this money to these two state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under the restructuring programme. The process to divest SriLankan Airlines began this week.
Of this, Rs. 129 billion would be allocated to the CEB and Rs. 109.9 billion to the national carrier, he added.
This supplementary estimate was endorsed by the Committee on Public Accounts (COPA), chaired by Dr. Harsha de Silva MP, recently after lengthy discussions with top officials of the Finance Ministry.
It has been revealed that the total outstanding liability of the CEB and the SLA to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) increased to Rs. 238.9 billion due to the weak financial position and liquidity constraints of the two SOEs.
On the other hand, the CPC has residual liabilities to the government for its on-lending of the Indian Line of Credit facility (US$ 697 million), liabilities to the National Iran Oil Company ($251 million), and the Bank of Ceylon (Rs. 26.2 billion) at the end of April 2023, a Finance Ministry fiscal report revealed.
Therefore, the CPC was unable to settle the Indian Credit Line worth $697 million, which was used to facilitate fuel importation.
Hence, the treatment of these cross liabilities between the central government, the CEB, SLA, and CPC would be addressed in the government’s overall strategy for restructuring the balance sheets of key SOEs, the ministry official said.
Further, it has been brought to the attention of the committee by officials that SLA has incurred a huge loss and the supplementary estimate allocation is sufficient only to repay 30 percent of its debt.
The CEB will have to repay debts amounting to Rs. 300-400 billion even after receiving the supplementary estimate financial allocation, the official said.
The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!