Kanchana defends “necessary” electricity tariff hike

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Power & Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara in parliament defended electricity tariff hikes, insisting that the burden on consumers would not have been so great if timely tariff revisions had been implemented.

Speaking during an adjournment debate on the impact of the tariff hike, Wijesekara argued that wrong policies were not exclusive to one government and that steep hikes were inevitable given the large costs of power generation.

“Even though a hike is a very difficult thing for the people, it must be done at this time,” Wijesekara said.

“So far the [the state-run utility provider] Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) needs to pay 76.8 billion rupees to private power plants and 29 billion rupees for renewables including rooftop solar. [The state-run] Ceypetco has to pay 31 billion rupees.”

The minister said that even though the CEB had filed for a projected revenue of 869 billion rupees from the tariff hikes, the Public Utilities Commission (PUCSL) had only given approval for 500 billion rupees.