Minister Amaraweera says he settled water bill arrears left by his predecessor running to Rs 300,000 plus a penalty

By Ifham Nizam 

Minister of Water Supply Vasudeva Nanayakkara yesterday said he would name the current MPs who had failed to pay their water bills.

Nanayakkara said that some 45 such MPs and Ministers had been identified so far.

He said some MPs and Ministers had been instructed to obtain the relevant funds to settle water bills through the relevant Ministries as they had been allocated official residences.

Ministry officials had informed that they were unable to pay the relevant bills as there was no provision for making such payments.

Accordingly, a final decision in this regard would be taken after informing the Cabinet of Ministers about this situation, Minister Nanayakkara said.

Based on Cabinet response, action would be taken against the Ministers and MPs who had not paid their water bills, Nanayakkara said.

Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera has said Water Supply and Drainage Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara has given an assurance that his name was not on the list of ministers who had not paid their water bills.

Minister Amaraweera, who was tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, said that Minister Nanayakkara had told the media that legal action would be taken against 48 former and present Ministers, who had not paid their water bills to the Water Supply and Drainage Board.

“He has given an assurance that I am not on that list. I stared occupying a ministerial residence in 2015. Since then I have been paying all water and electricity bills monthly. However, I saw a situation where Rs. 11,000 was charged as interest every month.

The penalty was for bills not paid by the Ministers who had previously used the official residence. I paid that amount as well.

Therefore, I inquired about the unpaid bills of the former Minister. There were arrears running into Rs. 300,000. I paid that amount too. Now I am free,” he added.

More ministers like Nanayakkara should be in the Cabinet, he said. “He has the ability to complete these tasks and minimize the Water Board losses.