Rs 26,000 m electricity subsidy granted to over 3 m families - CEB Chairman

Sandasen MARASINGHE

Although the government provides an electricity subsidy of Rs 26,000 million for over three million families in the country, the government under the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to provide electricity even to the most underprivileged family in the country before long, though the decision greatly increases the CEB’s expenditure, said CEB Chairman W B Ganegala.

The CEB Chairman said the government has decided to increase the electricity connections by 100 percent by the middle of next year. “This will provide people in the urban and rural areas equal opportunities, raising living standards.”

The CEB Chairman made these observations at a discussion at the CEB. Ganegala said over five million families have been provided with electricity and three million families out of this number, use less than 90 units a month.

“An electricity subsidy of Rs 26,000 million is granted to those families using less than 90 units a month. The government has no intention to remove the provision of the subsidy,” he said. He said the new tariff is only to obtain the additional expenditure on the CEB due to the fuel price hike.

Ganegala said there will not be any electricity tariff increase after 2013 and relief would be provided to consumers. He also said that in the final stage of providing electricity to those in remote areas like mountainous areas of Kotmale, Mahavilachchiya etc will be very costly. He added that though a family in such areas pays a sum of Rs 200 monthly as a bill under concessionary rate, the CEB has to expend billions of rupees to provide electricity to such 50 houses.

He added that though it is beneficial for a government to increase the electricity provision in a measured manner, this government under leadership of the President, however has taken a historic decision to enable the people to enjoy facility of electricity to uplift their living standards.

Chairman Ganegala stated that hospitals, religious places and state ceremonies are provided with free electricity while schools are provided electricity at a very low rate. The commercial sector is not entitled to the electricity subsidy, while house holds that consume over 90 units of electricity will have to pay more. The CEB Chairman further said if the country experiences unfavorable weather conditions as it did last year, the estimated loss for 2013 will be Rs 88 billion. But if favorable conditions persist, the estimated loss will drop to Rs 71 billion.

He added that the proposed tariff will bring in Rs 48 billion, but there still remains a deficit of Rs 36 billion.

He added that the CEB could go for a bank Over Draft.

Ganegala also stated that these situations can be overcome with the transition from fuel power generation to coal power generation with the commissioning of the two other phases of coal power plant in Puttlam. This will enable the supply of electricity at a comparatively low rate in future as the fuel adjustment charges will be removed from the consumers bills.