Current freeze will backfire in second quarter

19 January 2026 10:13 am Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 2 Bookmark

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Colombo, Jan. 19 (Daily Mirror) - The government is likely to come under enhanced pressure to seek an electricity price revision -even at a higher rate- in the next revision in terms of the IMF prescribed cost-reflective pricing formula if any price revision is withheld for the first quarter of 2026, Daily Mirror learns.

Earlier, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) sought a tariff hike to increase revenues by 11.57 percent including a recovery of part of the losses in the last quarter.

According to the CEB, price hike was sought citing reasons such as fuel availability and prices, hydro inflows, plant maintenance schedules, energy demand, interest rates, transmission and distribution AR adjustments, reconciliation of actual BST in previous periods, and government policies to develop.

However, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) ruled out any approval for the electricity tariff revision for the first quarter of 2026 citing the failure on the part of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to submit a formal tariff revision proposal within the stipulated period.

The PUCSL said that the factors such as flaws in the original proposal, and the negative impact of a hike in tariffs in case a revision is implemented for the first quarter. The Commission has requested the CEB to submit the tariff revision proposals for the next quarter before February 13.

Comments - 2

Sokrates Monday, 19 January 2026 10:34 AM

I am totally opposed to any kind of subsidies. However, when losses are caused by mismanagement, corruption and excessive bonus payments to employees, consumers should not be burdened with them. Such losses must be offset within the CEB.

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S P Monday, 19 January 2026 11:07 AM

It’s very unfortunate that the government is on the headlines almost every other day for all the wrong reasons. One day it’s education reforms, the next day some not so bright utterances about religious pilgrimages and the next about electricity (substandard coal, attempted price increases or botched reforms). The media is having a heyday. We the general public is amused but there’s some grave happenings behind all this. That’s the fear where all this will have taken us when the day of reckoning comes. Will that be another unprecedented crisis that we are so familiar with in this country?

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