President: No alternative to increase electricity tariffs

President Ranil Wickremesinghe today declared that there was no alternative other than increasing the tariff of electricity.

The President told Parliament that in view of the increased losses the government was forced take unpopular decisions.

He was responding to statements made by opposition members who called the government not to go ahead with a proposed tariff increase as prices were increased recently.

The President said  another Rs 151 billion loss is due to be incurred by the the CEB while the losses from 2013 was around Rs 300 billion.

He said by next year if there was a drought condition the loss would go up to Rs 420 billion, if rains are received it would be Rs 352 billion and Rs 285 billion if there were floods.

He said the other alternatives were to increase the VAT or to print money and both were not possible as the cost of living will rise.

He said parents have been saying that it was better to provide electricity than imposing power cuts.