The estimated loss of the Ceylon Electricity Board for the first six months of 2017 is reported to be Rs 30 billion and the CEB’s debts to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation was reported as Rs 40 billion for the first nine months of 2017, said Dr Harsha de Silva, Deputy Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs.
What that means is that someone has to pay these losses, asserted the minister making the keynote speech at the Energizing the Nation Framework for Energy Security Energy Forum 2017. He said there were delays in awarding tenders for energy projects and it was not the government’s fault but because the officials who were appointed to sit in theses tender committees were absconding and not sitting in them and approving the projects. He said it was just like the CEB was not present at the forum held yesterday to discuss those matters.
Minister Dr De Silva expressing disappointment over the non presence of the CEB at the energy forum said the CEB must play a meaningful role in this national discussion and there was no room for the CEB not being a part of a forum of this nature. The current energy situation in the country cannot be called bad but it is not good.” It is not a crisis but if we continue without action it will become a crisis. It is not a binding constraint but if we don’t deliver it will become a binding constraint and cost tremendous disruptions,” he said.
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