The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is facing a severe cash crunch since the state entity is spending a bigger portion of its revenue to buy electricity from the private sector, Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) Janaka Rathnayake said.
The monthly income of the CEB stands at around Rs. 22 billion but the CEB has to pay about Rs.18 billion monthly for the electricity that it purchases from the private sector due to the fuel crisis and the fall in hydro power generation.
The prices of coal and diesel have risen by 130 percent. Following the depreciation of the Sri Lankan rupee recently, the maintenance charges of the CEB too have shot up, the PUCSL Chairman told the Sunday Observer.
Commenting on the reasons for the higher electricity tariff that consumers will have to pay, he said nearly 90 percent of the cost of generating power by the CEB is imported fuel such as diesel and coal.
A senior DGM of the CEB said that the CEB has been compelled to suspend installing new connections as it has run short of equipment. The dollar crisis has pushed the CEB to discontinue certain imports.