Friday 26th April, 2024

The Sri Lanka Electricity Bill, which seeks to introduce far-reaching power sector reforms, was presented to Parliament yesterday amidst protests from the Opposition. Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera, exuding his characteristic swashbuckling attitude, said there was a two-week window for anyone to challenge the Bill in the Supreme Court, and a discussion thereon could be held after it was sent to the relevant parliamentary committee. He sounded facetious when he said so, much to the annoyance of the Opposition MPs. Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella rightly pointed out that the views of the stakeholders including the Opposition MPs should have been ascertained and taken on board before the first reading of the Bill.

The general consensus is that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) needs a radical shake-up, and power sector reforms are overdue. Electricity consumers are perennially at loggerheads with the CEB, which has become synonymous with corruption, exploitation, bureaucratic red tape, arrogance and inefficiency. Precious little has been done by way of the implementation of the country’s long-term generation plan.

But opinion is divided on how the government has proposed to set about the task. The Minister of Power and Energy is taking great pains to make the Electricity Bill out to be a silver bullet that can rid the CEB of all its ills and help straighten up the power sector; the government has sought to capitalise on public resentment towards the CEB to compass its ends.

The critics of the Electricity Bill view it as a total sellout; they maintain that the government is all out to further the interests of some private companies including India’s Adani Group. According to them, the Bill is aimed at privatising the CEB, and the divestiture thereof will not only adversely impact the interests of the public and the local industrial sector but also pose a serious threat to national security.

The CEB, they argue, was created not to earn profits but to break even at the operating level while supplying electricity to everyone at affordable rates to spur national development; the privatisation of the vital institution will lead to a situation where private companies can maximise profits, as is their wont, at the expense of the public. Some of the critics of the Bill have claimed that if private companies are allowed to gain control over the power sector, they may even be able to engineer regime changes here by causing prolonged power outages.

The government is doing exactly the opposite of what it obtained a mandate for, at the last general election. The SLPP made a solemn pledge not to divest state-owned enterprises. So, the Opposition’s argument that the government should seek a fresh mandate to reverse its policies is tenable. But the fact remains that all those who have governed the country over the past several decades are responsible, albeit to varying degrees, for the current economic crisis, which has left the public at the mercy of the IMF, whose bailout packages are conditional upon the implementation of extremely hurtful structural adjustment programmes. Nevertheless, the Opposition’s arguments against the Electricity Bill are not devoid of validity.

Government politicians are making the most of the current situation to serve their own interests on the pretext of fulfilling IMF conditions. Corrupt deals in the health sector, such as numerous procurement rackets, have come to light. The power sector is equally corrupt, and only a thorough investigation into the controversial emergency power purchase deals, questionable agreements on the establishment of power stations, etc., will help find out those who have lined their pockets and caused electricity prices to increase.

Trade unions have rejected the Electricity Bill lock, stock and barrel, and vowed to go all out to torpedo it. The government is determined to bulldoze its way through, and a showdown is likely. They ought to realise that the economy cannot take any more shocks. They must act with restraint. They have two weeks to discuss the Bill at length, together with other stakeholders, including the Opposition, and ensure that the interests of the public will prevail. One can only hope that one is not hoping against hope.

Most of all, the warring parties had better stop clashing and take cognisance of the fact that unless the blight of structural corruption, which has assumed political, bureaucratic, economic and social dimensions, and eaten into the vitals of the state, is eliminated once and for all, as a national priority, economic recovery will elude the country even if all national assets are disposed of at fire-sale prices; the IMF itself has flagged corruption as a serious issue affecting Sri Lanka’s economy. Mere rhetoric will not do.