UEC wants newly appointed PUCSL to ensure refunding of Rs 25 bn in consumer deposits held by CEB

By Anuradha Hiripitiyage

The newly appointed Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) should look into refunding electricity consumers over Rs. 25 billion of their funds lying with the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), Sanjeewa Dhammika, Secretary of the Union of Electricity Consumers (UEC) told The Island yesterday.

When a person obtained an electricity connection from the CEB, he or she had to place a deposit at the regional CEB engineering office. As per Sri Lanka Electricity Act, No. 20 of 2009, the CEB had to pay consumers an interest on those deposits, Dhammika said.

Section 28.3 of the Act says ‘(3) Where any sum of money is provided to a distribution licensee by way of security in pursuance of this section, the licensee (CEB) shall pay interest on such sum of money at such rate as may from time to time be fixed by the licensee with the approval of the Commission (PUCSL), for the period in which it remains in the hands of the licensee.’

The UEC Secretary said: “None of the governments has paid this interest, although the PUCSL annually declares the interest rate that has to be paid. Now there is about Rs. 25 billion of our money with the CEB. The previous PUCSL commissioners couldn’t do it; hopefully the new commissioners can look into it and rectify the matter.”

Earlier this week Parliamentary Council approved new members to the PUCSL. Janaka Ratnayake is the new Chairman of the PUCSL while Chathurika Wijesinghe, Mohan Samaranayake, Udeni Wickramasinghe, and Prof. Janaka Ekanayake are the other members of the PUCSL.

With Rs. 25 billion the government could easily construct a 100 megawatt power plant, Dhammika said, adding that the CEB should not be allowed to swindle the Rs. 25 billion that belonged to the electricity consumers.

“The new PUCSL has the blessings of the government. Hopefully they can do more,” he added.