President shines light on CEB and CPC losses

On 4 June 2019, Divaina reported President Maithripala Sirisena making the following claim: The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) incur losses in the tens of millions [of rupees] per day.

The Ministry of Finance Annual Report 2018 (MFAR), and the Central Bank Annual Report 2018 (CBAR) corroborate the claim with the following information: 

• The CEB recorded an operating loss of Rs. 30.407 billion (including interest payments of Rs. 13.037 billion) in 2018 (MFAR), and a loss before tax of 28.9 billion (CBAR). This means the average loss per day, before tax, was over Rs. 79 million. 
• The CPC recorded a loss of Rs. 104.037 billion before tax in 2018 (MFAR). This means the average loss per day, before tax, was over Rs. 285 million. 

The findings from the financial reports of 2018 show that the president was correct in his assessment that both the CEB and the CPC incur losses amounting to tens of millions of rupees per day.

Therefore, we classify the president’s claim as TRUE

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*FactCheck’s verdict is based on the most recent information that is publicly accessible. As with every fact check, if new information becomes available, FactCheck will revisit the assessment.

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