Thu, May 9, 2013, 12:40 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
May 09, Colombo: Sri Lanka's Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) says that the government is responsible for the losses amounting to billions of rupees incurred by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB). JVP politburo member and parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake said the government should not burden the people with electricity tariff hikes to cover up its faults.
He asserted that the electricity tariffs were not increased due to decisions taken by the people.
"It is said that the electricity tariffs were increased to cover a loss of Rs. 59 billion incurred by the CEB," he noted.
Dissanayake explaining the reason for this loss said that one of the key issues is the devaluation of the rupee according to conditions laid down by the IMF.
"The rupee that was 110 against the dollar fell to 130. Since 60% of the country's power is generated from fuel and coal, payments for the imports have to be made in dollars. The country has to pay more rupees due to the depreciation of the rupee for these imports. This has resulted in a Rs. 33 billion loss to the CEB," he explained.
He further explained that another area is the agreements signed by the government with independent power producers.
"The agreements include a capacity charge that the CEB has to pay these companies regardless of whether they purchase power from them or not. Even if the CEB does not purchase electricity from them, they have to pay Rs. 11 billion to these companies. Therefore, the loss from these two areas is Rs. 44 billion," Dissanayake said.
Also, he pointed out that the government had estimated the Kerawalapitiya power plant to produce 300MW at US$ 225 million. However, when the project was completed, the plant had cost US$ 346 million with a 270MW capacity.
"The Norochcholai coal power plant also has problems and is constantly broken down. All these have added to the losses incurred by the CEB. It is the government that is responsible for the CEB losses," the JVP MP insisted.