The Hon. Kumara Jayakody - Minister of Energy

¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, we never stated that we would reduce “electricity” (supply); we aim to reduce electricity bills. We did not promise to reduce it overnight; our plan is over three years, because consequences of past corrupt and irregular governance burden the people. The CEB currently has about Rs. 332 billion in debt. Generation purchase costs fluctuated: unit costs rose from around Rs. 22 to Rs. 37, then eased to around Rs. 27.

¶ 02 What consumers pay via tariffs is less than the full cost we incur to purchase from certain generators. We must manage this systematically, not for political expediency. The mandate we have is to stabilize the sector. Initial calculations suggested a 37 per cent increase would be needed, yet we managed to avoid increases and keep any revision to around one point something per cent, while untangling legacy issues like long-term high-cost PPAs. We will pursue a structured path to reduce bills by around 35 per cent within three years. We are putting the necessary plans and actions in place; ad-hoc cuts are not feasible.

¶ 03 The CEB has not made tariff revisions for long stretches in the past while input costs increased and purchase prices kept rising. We are working towards stability, moving away from month-to-month volatility. We will bring the Sri Lankan unit cost down towards a fair least-cost level in the region.