By Chaminda Silva

Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission (PUCSL) Janaka Ratnayake yesterday said that his outfit would frustrate attempts being made to jack up power tariffs.

He said that Minister of Power and Energy, Kanchana Wijesekera had no authority to increase the tariff in an ad hoc manner.

“The Minister needs the approval of the PUCSL to increase the electricity tariff. If the Minister increases it without our approval, we will take legal action,” he said.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) had been making profits since the tariff was increased in August 2022, he said.

“Another price hike in quick succesion cannot be justified; it will have an adverse impact on the people and the industries reeling from current economic chaos,” he said.

Ratnayake added that the CEB had not submitted any request for a fresh increase in electricity tariff.

“There is a way of revising the tariff. The CEB has to present a proposal and then we decide whether to approve it.

There is no point in placing a proposal to increase tariffs before the Cabinet. Probably, the Minister is trying to scare the people,” Ratnayake said, adding that the Minister and the CEB could not ask for a tariff hike based on the possibility of power cuts.

Minister Wijesekera recently said that there would be severe power cuts unless a 65 percent tariff increase was effected.

Meanwhile, former Minister of Power Champika Ranawaka has rubbished the government’s claim that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is incurring losses, and questioned the validity of the load forecasting for 2023, upon which the CEB’s decision to jack up power tariff again is based. Ranawaka is reported to have said the country’s daily electricity consumption is 37 Gigawatt hours, and the CEB’s claim that it will increase to 48 Gigawatt hours next year is far-fetched, and the CEB has not factored in a decrease in the demand for power in the current depressed circumstances.