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Electricity concession for consumers amidst pandemic: CEB rules out concessions during new wave 

09 May 2021

  • Tourism sector receives extension to settle payments

By The Sunday Morning Business Desk    Electricity concessions provided to consumers following the unprecedented global health crisis covid-19 pandemic last year is not tabled to be given for 2021 yet, The Sunday Morning Business learnt.  Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Finance Head, E.K. Liyanage said that only the tourism industry is given a concession with an extension of a time period to settle their outstanding, however, so far no decision has been made to give any concession to other stakeholders.  “Most of the concession given has outstanding payments are yet to be settled and no decision has been made to five a concession however if the situation worsens CEB will be given,” he stated.  The Cabinet of Ministers approved to provide a 25% concessionary reduction on electricity bills for March, April, and May, last year.  Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) had already allocated Rs. 3 billion to provide concessions for consumers  and people who had already settled their bills in the period between March and May would receive an excess payment reduced from their future bills.  Accordingly, Minister of Power and Energy and Transport Services Mahinda Amaraweera presented a Cabinet Memorandum to inform the Cabinet on electricity bills and appointed a committee to look into the proposed concessions, last year. In addition, the Government took full responsibility and also agreed to provide the funds to the Ceylon Electricity Board in order to provide the relief to the public.  The Government has taken further steps to calculate electricity bills according to the units consumed and those that consume less will be charged lower and those that have high consumption patterns will be charged higher. The system was adapted to ensure concessions for households are provided with less electricity consumption. Therefore we will continue to supply electricity for lower prices that use a less number of units.  Meanwhile, the state-owned entity had been long debt ridden struggling with short-term borrowings from banks and other short-term liabilities to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and independent power producers (IPPs) increasing to Rs. 223.2 billion by the end of 2019 from Rs. 142.2 billion at the end of 2018. The CEB’s long-term outstanding liabilities increased to Rs. 421.7 billion by the end of 2019 from Rs. 392.2 billion recorded at the end of 2018. Additionally, CEB claimed that bills worth Rs. 30 billion were outstanding as of July 2020.  One of the main reasons for the government-owned entity to incur losses is due to the subsidy given by the Government to the people. In addition, the Government imposed a policy to supply fuel at any condition.  According to the unaudited provisional financial statements, the CEB recorded a loss of Rs. 85.4 billion before tax in 2019 compared to a loss of Rs. 30.5 billion in 2018. Increased dependence on thermal power due to dry weather conditions that prevailed during the first seven months of 2019 was the main reason for the deterioration of the financial position of the CEB.  During the Covid-19 crisis in March, the Power and Energy Ministry announced a grace period until March 30 for consumers to settle outstanding electricity bills. This was then further extended to April 30.  In May, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), CEB and Lanka Electricity Company (Pvt.) Ltd. (LECO) announced it would calculate electricity bills according to the number of electricity units (prorate basis) received at concessionary rates and give consumers a sufficient grace period to settle outstanding bills.


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