Govt. to hear out CEB unions before embarking on urgently needed reforms

By Ifham Nizam

The Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) and other CEB trade unions would be given an opportunity to make representations once the Reform Office was set up shortly, a senior engineer said yesterday.

Responding to queries, CEBEU Vice President Dhanushka Parakramasinghe told The Island that the Restructuring of the CEB by the ‘Reform Office’ would take place once necessary laws were made, and unions would be part and parcel of it.

Parakramasinghe said that the unions had met Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera on Sunday.

While agreeing to four of the five demands of the CEBEU, Minister Wijesekera stated that when it came to tax reforms, it was beyond his control, but he requested the unions to continue power supply today –March 14- without any interruptions due to the planned protest campaign.

The CEB unions are against the increase in personal income tax.

The government has raised taxes up to a maximum of 36%.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe has, in his capacity as the finance minister, raised corporate taxes to 30 percent from 24 from this year, after almost doubling the value added tax (VAT) last year.

The higher taxes come as the inflation is hovering around 57 percent while borrowing cost is running around 30 percent.

In addition, the collective agreement with the CEB trade unions, electricity tariffs, the government’s tax policy, and other related matters were taken up for discussion during the meeting.

The progress of the CEB restructuring programme was reviewed last Friday.

Assistance will be obtained for financial audits, human resource audits, assets audits and legal expertise under the assistance offered by donor banks / agencies.

Roadmap and timeline will be submitted to the Cabinet on the process, Minister Wijesekera said, adding that the reforms that can be implemented before the final Act, will be initiated next week.

As part of the reforms, the existing collective agreements will be terminated and new policy decisions related to management of CEB accounts to reduce cost taken, the minister said.