CEB saddled with USD 30,000 a day demurrage payments to ship that brought coal last Friday

By Ifham Nizam

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has failed to furnish a Letter of Credit (LoC) to a ship carrying coal that arrived here on 01 April and this has resulted in a demurrage payment of USD 30,000 a day since then, The Island reliably learns.

About 38 to 42 ships carry coal to Sri Lanka from South Africa, Russia and Indonesia annually.

CEB Chairman M. M.C. Ferdinando last week agreed that the CEB needed about six billion rupees to import the remaining four shipments of coal for the Lakviyaja Coal Power plant at Norochcholai.

“We called a spot tender for eight shipments of coal. We have already taken delivery of four. We need to open Letters of Credit for four more shipments,” the CEB Chief said at the Presidential Media Centre during a news conference on Thursday.

Although Ferdinando assured that they would find that Rs. 06 billion on 01 April, payments have not been done.

The CEB Chairman was not immediately available for comment.

Engineers believe that ships should not be delayed, but should be cleared before rough seas set in.

The Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union President Anil Ranjith has told the media it is imperative that CEB take delivery of the required coal shipments at the earliest before the monsoon season begins to keep the three coal fired power plants at Norochcholai running until August. The Norochcholai power complex provide about half the electricity requirement of the country.

It is reported that the four shipments would amount to a total of 240,000 metric tonnes (MT) of coal.

The Kelanitissa Power Plant Complex has received 5,000 MT of fuel which is sufficient for three days.

The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) said that a vessel carrying 40, 000 MT of diesel had reached here under the Indian line of credit.

The stock of 40,000 MT of diesel that arrived here on Saturday was distributed on Sunday.