Electricity bill should increase by a considerable percentage: CEB Chairman

The electricity bill should be increased by a considerable percentage, at least to pay the monthly salary of the employees, CEB Chairman M.M.C. Ferdinando said.

Addressing the media, he said the electricity rates had not increased since 2014 until now.

This is not a fault of the consumers, but the CEB had to increase the bill amount step by step without making it a burden to the people.

The revenue of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is Rs. 277 billion and the cost is Rs.755 billion. The CEB should increase the bill by at least 250 per cent to compensate for the loss, which is neither unreasonable nor unjust.

However, no decision has been taken yet to increase the electricity bill, he said.

Meanwhile, the CEB chairman assured that the prevalent power cut situation will not last until the end of this year. He said the CEB is looking forward to minimising the power cut duration from three hours to twenty minutes until the diesel issue is solved and with the increase of hydropower generation. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)

Pix by Kithsiri de Mel