Won’t tolerate cabinet approval of electricity price hike: PUCSL

The Public Utilities Commission would not hesitate to go to the extremes to stop and revoke the cabinet approval to increase electricity tariff rates, PUCSL Chairman Janaka Rathnayake said at a New Year's Eve event at the Commission today.

He said that the Cabinet approval which is expected this evening is “unfair”.

He stated that with the proposal, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) was planning to collect more than Rs 100 billion this year to bring sufficient coal stocks and provide an uninterrupted power supply.

"This is totally against the taxation process and the Electricity Act in the country," he said.

“The proposed tariff revision to the Cabinet is not fair. There are about five million total consumers of which 1.7 million people use less than 30 units of electricity a month.
With the revision, the tariff will increase by 1,200 percent for this particular group and the group who use between 60 and 90 units a month," he said.

He said that the procedure of increasing the electricity tariff should be done under the Electricity and PUCSL Acts.

"The process is currently underway to increase the electricity tariff, according to an incorrect interpretation taken by the Attorney General," he said.

“However, the PUCSL will not grant permission to increase the electricity tariff due to recent increases since last August,” he said. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)