• Allege inaccurate tariff revision estimates per Auditor Gen. report 

The Electricity Consumers' Association (ECA) claimed that a preliminary study by the Auditor General’s (AG) Department revealed that Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) officials based the 2024 and 2025 tariff revision proposals on inaccurate estimates, and hence urged the relevant officials’ immediate summoning before the Parliamentary Committee on Public Finance (COPF).

Speaking to The Daily Morning, ECA General Secretary Sanjeewa Dhammika said that the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) completely dismissed the third tariff revision proposal submitted by the CEB in 2024, adding that the Ministry of Power and Energy and the CEB should be ashamed of it. 

“Certain CEB officials have an issue with numbers. In 2023, they said that electricity tariffs should be raised by 66%. But, the PUCSL staff said that only a 35% increase was sufficient. However, some PUCSL members who were loyal to then-Energy Minister approved a 66% increase. From that time to date, all CEB tariff revision proposals were asked to be revised by the PUCSL,” he noted.

He said that a preliminary study carried out by the AG’s Department has indicated that the tariff revision proposals submitted by the CEB in relation to 2024 and 2025 have been based on inaccurate data. 

“During the past few years, there have been five tariff revisions and the CEB has made over Rs. 200 billion in profit. If the tariff revisions were implemented as proposed by the CEB, their profit would have been more than Rs. 400 billion,” he explained.

Speaking further, Dhammika said that both the PUCSL and the AG’s Department have stated that a sum of Rs. 38 billion could be saved if the CEB purchases fuel from the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation under fair rates instead of general retail prices. 

Dhammika further said: “We still say that electricity tariffs can be reduced by between 30-35%. We are ready to prove it to any CEB official with facts and figures. We urge the COPF to summon CEB officials who consider inaccurate data in preparing proposals that affect the public.”

Minister of Energy Kumara Jayakody was not available for comment.

On an earlier occasion, CEB Chairperson Dr. Tilak Siyambalapitiya said: “A tariff filing carries a forecast of sales and costs. A forecast has many assumptions. They are not inaccuracies.”