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

The Hon. Sajith Premadasa

Samagi Jana Balawegaya· Colombo· 9 April 2026 ·Oral question: Second Round of Oral Questions and Ministerial Statements

Public FinanceInfrastructureCorruption & Governance Reform
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Hon. Sajith Premadasa questioned the Government’s handling of coal procurement and maintenance-related power outages, arguing that PUCSL data, plant performance, coal consumption, calorific value and ash content suggested inferior coal had been supplied, preventing full 900 MW output from the three coal units. He asked why the tender was awarded to Trident Chemphar Limited despite alleged incomplete registration, and why laboratory certificates from labs with expired accreditations were accepted.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, regarding maintenance outages: we said four power plants—Unit 1, Unit 2, Kerawalapitiya and Kelanitissa. From the answers, it is clear that under the new coal supply, full 900 MW (3 x 300 MW) could not be achieved. The reported average coal consumption and specific consumption indicate inferior coal has been used. The PUCSL data and your answers, and gross calorific value based on plant performance, all indicate inferior coal. Ash content comparisons also indicate previous supplier’s coal was higher quality while your procurement process resulted in inferior coal.

¶ 02 Finally, Hon. Speaker, regarding procurement: Trident Chemphar Limited is an entity that had not completed the required registration. Why was the tender awarded to such an entity? Also, why were lab certificates from laboratories with expired accreditations used?

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Thursday, 9 April 2026 ·No. 23475 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Sajith Premadasa. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 9 April 2026. No. 23475. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/28568