The Hon. Ajith P. Perera

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I am glad to note that those who said the CEB is overstaffed now claim a scientific government is in power. Today there are 23,000 CEB employees. To decide the required number, one must do a human resource audit. Has this scientific Government done it? How did you determine whether 23,000, 16,000, 15,000 or 12,000 are needed? We must also be responsible: the CEB has not recruited beyond its approved cadre. If the number is too high or misaligned with technology, do the HR audit and decide.

¶ 02 Next, employees are anxious — will their jobs or benefits be lost, will they be stranded, what will VRS actually pay? Nothing is decided. That is why employees demanded, before passing this Bill, a collective agreement safeguarding their rights. Those unions, who historically stood above citizens’ rights in defending CEB workers’ rights, now form the Government’s majority, yet have not even pursued a basic collective agreement. Beyond legal text, concrete conditions and agreements must protect employees.

¶ 03 This morning, when I pointed out inadequate consumer safeguards, the Minister objected. In 2024 under the Wickremesinghe–Wijesekera Government’s Bill, we in the Opposition, including our Chair in the Sectoral Committee, supported restoring consumer rights removed by the 2010 and 2013 laws. Is that wrong? In 2024, when Dr. Harsha de Silva, Kabir Hashim and others presented alternative proposals for necessary amendments, you refused them. Now the Attorney General says we cannot insert provisions outside the scheme placed before the Supreme Court. You accept that.

¶ 04 You also know that LTL Holdings Limited — a company majority-owned by the Government — owns generation assets equivalent to the CEB’s and operates internationally, including manufacturing in India, and plans to go to the stock market. That should be encouraged while protecting citizen and state interests.

¶ 05 But in this Bill, LTL is listed as a transmission company. What a joke — LTL has no transmission rights in Sri Lanka; its transmission operations are abroad like in Kenya and Bangladesh. Here it engages in generation and transformer manufacturing. Therefore, placing it under transmission at the outset is wrong. In the Sectoral Oversight Committee we unanimously agreed it should be under a different category. Now the AG says since it wasn’t raised earlier before Court, we cannot change it. Fine — if that is the Government’s position, then bring a fresh amendment promptly to restore the consumer protections we all agreed on, and to place LTL in its proper category. We in the Opposition will support you to correct this distortion. We cannot instruct the AG; it is your Government’s prerogative to bring the amendment.

¶ 06 As of today, installed capacity is 5,192 MW, built over 76 years. The JVP never added even a single megawatt to the grid; they burnt transformers and broke poles. It was previous governments — UNP or others — who built hydropower and large plants, achieving near-universal electrification.

¶ 07 We must now build a smart grid and maximize solar and wind. That will deliver quality service and lower prices, enabling industries and investors with globally competitive tariffs. We are proud to have led the “Soorya Bala Sangramaya” with over 1,700 MW of rooftop solar and over 200 MW of ground-mounted solar added. If this Government regresses, weakens consumers and businesses, and fails to build a pro-investment environment, we will point it out. However, we will support every positive step you take — as we did at the Committee. We wish you well. But due to the shortcomings in this Bill, we cannot vote with you today. Fix them, and we will agree. Thank you.