CEB re-connection fee to be reduced next month – Kanchana Wijesekera

Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera at a press conference held at the Presidential Media Center today (25),  said that the present Three thousand rupee re-connection fee levied by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) would be revised next month and the new fee would be less than Rs 2000..

The Minister explained that there were nearly 8 million electricity consumers in Sri Lanka and that between 1st January and 31st October 2023, around 580,000 disconnections had been done due to non payment of electricity bills. At present, to reconnect the supply, the outstanding amount in full and an additional Rs 3000 had to be paid.  He pointed out that a person whose electricity supply is disconnected due to his or her inability to pay five hundred rupees would be in dire straits as Rupees 3500 would be needed for re-connection! Hence the need arose to revise the re-connection fee to meet the basic cost of disconnection and re-connection.

The Minister admitted that the CEB was over staffed even though 5,000 vacancies existed as the permanent carder had dropped from 26,000 to 21,000.  He reiterated that only essential technical staff would be recruited and some services would be outsourced in the future.