The cabinet has approved a proposal to reduce the frequency of power tariff revisions from six to three months.
Cabinet spokesman and Minister of Transport Bandula Gunawardena told reporters at the weekly cabinet press briefing on Tuesday, October 31 that the amendment was proposed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe in his capacity as Minister of Finance, in collaboration with Power & Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara.
This was taking into consideration “the inconveniences the public has to confront” due to the state-run Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) following the existing six-monthly revision, said Gunawardena.
The minister in charge of the subject of electricity is vested with the power to prepare a general policy guideline on the supply of electricity subject to the approval of the cabinet of ministers as per the provisions of the Sri Lanka Electricity Act No. 20 of 2009, a statement from the cabinet office said Tuesday morning.
“Accordingly, the electricity charges review period is decided to be six (06) months as per the existing general policies guidelines,” the statement said, in a preamble to the new proposal.
The cabinet has also approved a proposal to “implement a power dispatch audit of the Ceylon Electricity Board, and strengthen hydro electricity forecasting with the assistance of the Department of Meteorology so that the general policies guidelines already implemented can be revised”.
A recent 18-percent increase in electricity tariffs has drawn protests from various parties including opposition groups and unions. Small-scale protests are being held routinely at night, despite the ongoing rains, with participants brandishing conventional oil-powered torches.
These protests are a throwback to last year’s series of protests of a similar vein during the daily power outages that sparked the nationwide Aragalaya anti-government protests which resulted in the ouster of then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Political analysts have speculated on the possibility that opposition groups organising the ongoing protests are banking on the agitation to snowball into a wider, more general anti-government protest movement.
Source: Economy Next
