10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

The Hon. S.M. Marikkar

Samagi Jana Balawegaya· Colombo· 17 June 2025 ·Oral question: Oral Question Q.279/2024: SMS Service for Electricity Bills

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Hon. S.M. Marikkar urged that temporary concessions be provided for low-income elderly electricity consumers facing disconnection. He criticized the Ceylon Electricity Board’s reliance on disconnections and Rs. 3,000 reconnection fees, arguing that reminder calls would be a cheaper and more compassionate alternative, and expressed dissatisfaction with the Minister’s response.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 I will not ask a second supplementary. Since you do not accept this, I must note that a temporary concession should be given, especially to low-income elderly consumers. I feel the CEB prefers disconnections because the Rs. 3,000 reconnection fee accrues, whereas a reminder call would cost far less even at scale. I cannot accept your answer. As an engineer-Minister, I expected a more compassionate approach towards innocent consumers. I do not expect a further reply.

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Tuesday, 17 June 2025 ·No. 1750929357043199 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. S.M. Marikkar. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 17 June 2025. No. 1750929357043199. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/14507