• CEB stands firm on equitable disconnection for delayed payments 

Claiming that the Government has not provided any form of subsidy including solar panels to religious places as a solution to the recent increase in electricity tariffs, the Chief Prelate of the Ramanna Sect in Southern Sri Lanka, Ven. Omalpe Sobhitha  Thera claimed that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has instead disconnected the electricity supply to many temples where the payment of electricity bills has been delayed.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (13), he claimed: "Just because the Government increased electricity tariffs, has the income of the people gone up? When the electricity tariffs of religious places were increased by about 555% in August, last year (2022), President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Government lied that temples would be provided with solar panels, but nothing of the sort has been provided to us yet. Instead, the CEB has disconnected the electricity supply to many temples including two temples in Hambantota and Uthuwankanda during the past few days." He claimed that most of the temples of which the electricity supply has been disconnected by the CEB have been gradually settling the relevant outstanding payments. "The two temples in Hambantota and Uthuwankanda had to pay sums of Rs. 25,000 and Rs. 94,000, respectively. They had been settling the payments whenever they could. All these payments are made with the use of the money that the villagers donate, but do the people have money to donate at present? The Government has destroyed their income sources," he further claimed. Speaking further, Sobhitha Thera claimed that the electricity supply of the houses of many low income families have also been disconnected by the CEB due to the non-settlement of bills. "Not only religious places, but ordinary people too have been affected due to this issue. That is why we say that everyone should get together against this programme of the Government." When queried as to whether they would organise any form of protest over the issue, he said: "Yes, we will have to rally the people to protest against these unfair programmes."

When contacted by The Daily Morning, the Chairman of the CEB, Nalinda Ilangakoon said that the electricity supply would have to be disconnected at any place where the electricity bills are not paid on time. "There is a formal way to do these things. Be it temples, houses or any other place, all of them are our customers. So, no customer can be treated in a special way. Therefore, it is certain that if the electricity bill is not paid, the electricity supply will be disconnected."

The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) in August, 2022, approved an average 75% price hike for electricity tariffs for all electricity consumers in the country, which according to the then PUCSL Chairman Janaka Ratnayake, was the first electricity tariff hike in nine years. He said that the electricity tariff hike was made after two proposals forwarded by the CEB to hike prices. According to CEB data, tariffs for electricity used at religious places had been hiked by 555% driving up the charge per unit from Rs. 7.42 to Rs. 48.65. In response to a statement made by Sobhitha Thera at that time that he would not pay the electricity bills, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said that if the temples do not pay their electricity bills, it would result in the disconnection of the electricity supply.