• Notes shortage of material supplies, lengthy tender procedure, increasing demand due to fresh applications

A senior official of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) said yesterday (23) that the supply of all the pending electricity connections would be resumed as soon as possible, after the CEB receives the expected revenue from the recently increased electricity tariff.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday, he said that it would take two or three months to get back to the level of normalcy that the public expects from the CEB.

“At the moment, the CEB has received a large number of applications for new connections to be supplied. But, we have a shortage of required materials to provide those connections. And, I must say that the lack of revenue is not the only problem that we have. As a Government institution, there is a specific tender procedure to follow when purchasing the materials. It takes much more time than we expect. Therefore, it will take some time to clear the backlog even though we will receive considerable revenue from the electricity tariff in the months to come,” he said.

He also noted that they have not completely stopped offering new connections but that the pending list is lengthening each day.

State Minister of Power and Energy Indika Anuruddha Herath told the media recently that the CEB has faced an issue with providing new power connection supplies where more than 35,000 new connections that are sought were on the waiting list as a result of the shortage of the required materials. He had also said that the CEB would be able to accelerate the process of providing new connections as letters of credit could be opened to procure the required equipment such as transformers once they receive the expected revenue.