• Minister has broken his word: Dhammika

The Electricity Consumers' Association (ECA) yesterday (1 October) charged that the relevant regulatory body, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), does not intervene sufficiently to prevent the Ministry of Power and Energy and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) from violating policies regarding electricity tariffs.

The consumer group also accused the Government of violating policies that govern the rights of the electricity consumer.

Citing the current income shortage, the CEB had recently requested the PUCSL to grant permission for a revision of electricity tariffs, implicitly a tariff increase. The PUCSL had accordingly called for written comments and suggestions from the public and other stakeholders up to 18 October.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday, ECA General Secretary Sanjeewa Dhammika said that when the Government increased the electricity tariffs by significant rates last February, the subject Minister Kanchana Wijesekera had said that there would be no need to increase the tariffs again. Dhammika charged that the CEB seeking a revision now is a violation of the Government's policies and promise, as the CEB had sought to raise tariffs again with effect from this month.

"Initially, the Government stated that they would revise electricity tariffs only twice a year, but now there are preparations to revise tariffs for the third time this year. Instead of protecting their own policies, they are violating them. The CEB is seeking PUCSL's approval to implement the tariff revision – scheduled to be done in January 2024 – to be done this month, but how can we believe that they would not implement a tariff revision again in January?" he queried.

He said that the PUCSL had been established to prevent injustice to electricity consumers, but it did not seem to be fulfilling its role properly either. "The PUCSL has decided to hold a public consultation regarding the tariff revision proposed by the CEB, but it is doubtful whether the real public opinion is represented there. If the PUCSL does their job properly, they should initiate legal action against CEB for seeking such a revision. What they (PUCSL) would do is grant their approval for this in the end,” Dhammika opined.

Dhammika called on electricity consumers to stand up against unfair tariff hikes, citing the fact that public and private sector employees have not received any salary increase for many years, and the Government is acting according to the instructions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "The IMF always talks about the losses of Government institutions, but they are not bothered about the fact that the Government has not prepared any programme to prevent large-scale corruption. They are encouraging the Government to increase its revenue through easy methods," Dhammika charged.

Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera was not available for comment. Attempts by The Daily Morning to contact the PUCSL regarding the allegations levelled against them, failed. 

In a recent letter addressed to the Director General of the PUCSL, CEB General Manager, Engineer Rohan Seneviratne had said that the CEB had proposed a 3.15% reduction in electricity tariff for the period from July to December 2023, but the PUCSL had reduced the tariff by about 14.2% curtailing a considerable amount of allowed expenditure (approximately Rs. 33 billion) for the operations of the CEB for 2023. Therefore, the CEB had requested the PUCSL to take appropriate actions with immediate effect to fulfil the conditions given in the General Policy Guidelines for the Electricity Industry of the Government and Section 30 (4) of the Sri Lanka Electricity Act No. 20 of 2009 (as amended).