While the All Ceylon Canteen Owners' Association (ACCOA) has decided to raise the prices of lunch packets, fried rice, and kottu by 10% following the electricity tariffs being raised by 66% by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), with effect from midnight yesterday (16), the All Ceylon Bakery Owners' Association (ACBOA) stated however, that the prices of bakery products including bread will not increase.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday, the ACCOA President Asela Sampath said that although the gas prices were increased previously, the canteen owners did not increase the prices of their products as the prices of wheat flour and some other commodities came down. He also said that they did not raise the prices when the electricity tariffs were increased last year (2022), thinking of the hardships that the people were going through amidst the economic crisis. 

“Although we think of the people, the Government does not. That is why the members of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) had given approval to raise the electricity tariffs by isolating its Chairman (Janaka Ratnayake). They said that the tariffs were raised to recover the losses of the CEB, but none of the Governments in power thought of the canteen owners' wellbeing. We cannot tolerate this anymore. Therefore, we have decided to increase the prices of lunch packets, fried rice, and kottu by 10% with effect from midnight today (16),” he said.

The Daily Morning also contacted the ACBOA, N.K. Jayawardena to query as to whether the prices of bread and other bakery products will go up following the electricity tariff hike, to which he said that the ACBOA has not planned to increase the prices of any bakery product including bread.

Following the PUCSL members except Ratnayake granting approval to increase electricity tariffs, the CEB has increased electricity tariffs by 66% with effect from yesterday (16). According to the revision, the rate charged per unit of electricity for the first 30 units in the domestic category, has been increased to Rs. 30 from the previous rate of Rs. 8. For the industrial sector, the fee charged per unit under the first 300 units has been increased from Rs. 20 to Rs. 26. The fixed charge of Rs. 960 charged for the first 300 units has been increased to Rs. 1,200 and the fixed charge of Rs. 1,500 for every industry consuming electricity units above 300 has been revised to Rs. 1,600. For the category of general purpose hotels and public institutions, the fee charged per unit for the number of units consumed below 180 has been increased from Rs. 25 to Rs. 40, and for the consumption block above 180 units, the unit fee will be Rs. 47. For the fixed charge for public work, hotels and public institutions, the fixed charge of Rs. 360 for the first 180 units will increase to Rs. 1,000, and the fixed fee of Rs. 1,500 will be increased to Rs. 1,600 for categories above 180 units.