Government agreed to IMF electricity prices revision: Dy. Minister

Colombo, April 30 (Daily Mirror) - Claiming that the government has not refuted to adopt cost reflective electricity pricing as proposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF),Deputy Minister of Finance Dr. Anil Jayantha said yesterday the the government agreed to the IMF to revise electricity prices in June.

He told a news conference at the Government Information Department that as per the IMF agreement, electricity prices must be revised quarterly and that electricity price revision was due in April as per the IMF agreement.

He said the government revised electricity prices in January and that revision could not be done in April as per the IMF agreement due to delay in coming to agreement on pricing formula.

"Some media had erroneously reported quoting IMF statement that the government had not followed IMF condition on cost reflective electricity pricing. It is not true. The government has agreed on structural benchmark on cost reflective electricity pricing with the IMF. The IMF has mentioned that "the continuous structural benchmark on cost-recovery electricity pricing remains not met" as Sri Lanka did not revise electricity pricing in April as per the agreement," he said.

The Minister said the government agreed to revise electricity pricing in the next quarter in June.