President's aspirations and ground realities

IN spite of many ardent attempts to highlight the fallacy of the arguments of the CEB and the many unanswered questions of the true status of the finances of the CEB, particularly over the past two years, the consumer tariff has been hiked once more by 15%.

- By Eng. Parakrama Jayasinghe

No lesser expert than Dr. Lakshman Watawala, the head of the National Accounting Standards body outlined the unacceptability of the submissions made by the CEB claiming for an increase of consumer tariff of 18.3%.

As Dr. Watawala pointed out the CEB has continually failed to conduct a cost audit of their operations. Obviously such an audit would have brought to light the continued false claims to ask for a cost replacement tariff, to coverup the total lack of proper management and ability to harness best from the now well-established and undoubted indigenous resources to dramatically bring down the cost of generation. Then no one would have any objection to the principle of a cost reflective consumer tariff being granted in accordance with the relevant clauses of the Electricity Act No. 20 of 2009 viz; Clause Nos 3 (1)d, 4(1) a, 4(1) с.

This principle has not been changed in the new Electricity Act No. 36 of 2024 now in force. Then even the IMF could not demand a tariff to cover a cost of totally inefficient and outdated energy mix, continually being pushed by the CEB in total ignorance of the world trends.

Obviously the PUCSL would have been pressurised to ignore all the representations and facts presented in the public consultation, as evidenced by the directive of the Ministry of Finance to the PUCSL to abide by the dictates of the IMF. This is in total violation of the principle of independence of action by the sector Regulator, which is clearly emphasised in the relevant clauses of the Electricity Act No. 36.