Wednesday, 21 January 2004  
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CEB nets Rs 34m in fines last year

By Shirajiv Sirimane

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) Special Investigating Bureau (SIB) earned Rs. 34 million last year in fines collected from their customers who had taken illegal connections.

According to the head of the Branch, Ruban Wickramasinghe, this amount was collected through sudden raids carried out by the unit on a regular basis. He said that in addition customers who had forged the system had paid Rs. 8.3 million as fines to courts.

He said that the Unit established in 1995 carries out regular checks all over Sri Lanka on business establishments, industries and homes mainly based on public complaints. The raids are carried out with the assistance of the police in the area and when a person with an illegal connection is detected the client's supply is disconnected. "Misusing electricity is a non bailable offence." He said that the Unit is hoping to intensify raids this year.

Most of the business establishments that tap electricity are non-registered institutions such as rice mills and small industries. Last year the SIB raided a steel factory in Dekatana, which had defaulted the CEB for over Rs. 2 million.

Many business institutions default electricity payments to cut down production costs. This is done since Sri Lanka's electricity bills are the highest in the region.

With the introduction of the new single Value Added Tax (VAT) electricity bills would go up by an additional five percent and it would be an additional burden on industrialists and young entrepreneurs.

Manager Contracts Tangerine Tours, Bazeer Uvais said that though some institutions may impose additional VTA five percent from customers the travel industry is not in a position to do so. "The industry had published and given a pre determined rate to the travel agents and now we cannot alter it. We have to bear this additional cost," he said.

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