The Hon. Ravi Karunanayake

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I will conclude in a minute by outlining these matters. We must look at the operations of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and the Ceylon Electricity Board with business sense. Ultimately, what is required is to use a public–private partnership. Whoever says otherwise, governments are inefficient at doing business. What is needed is to show the correct pathway and bring in as many entrepreneurs as possible into that framework.

¶ 02 At present, electricity has been disconnected to about 600,000 to 700,000 consumers. You said this would be handled through a soft loan. So please look into that too. If someone cannot pay the electricity bill and electricity is disconnected after 10 days, then I ask how you will compensate those consumers if the CEB disconnects supply without any prior notice. Please take these ideas into consideration and act accordingly. It does not matter if the UNP is criticized. We have shown a path to rebuild the country. After 76 years of a curse, let us now proceed on the correct path. I fall silent.

¶ 03 Thank you very much.