State institutions owe Rs. 67 b to CPC

• P’ment told CEB owes Rs. 41 b, CPC overall debt $ 2.2 b  

 By Skandha Gunasekara

It was revealed in Parliament yesterday that a total of Rs. 67.8 billion has to be paid by state institutions to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC). 

Deputy Minister of Petroleum Resources Management, Anoma Gamage, made this revelation while taking part in yesterday’s committee stage debate on the expenditure heads coming under her Ministry, adding that the Ceylon Electricity Board owed the CPC Rs. 41 billion.

Elaborating further, the Deputy Minister said that Rs. 6 billion was owed to the CPC by independent power producers while the Road Development Authority of the Western Province has an outstanding Rs. 417 million to be paid to the CPC.

“The Road Development Authority (RDA) has to pay Rs. 248 million and Rs. 325 million should come from the Maga Neguma project. The CPC is to receive Rs. 1.2 million from the Sri Lanka tri-forces while another Rs. 12 million should come from SriLankan Airlines. The Ceylon Transport Board (CTB) has to pay Rs. 79 million,” she said, adding that another Rs. 5.173 billion from other state institutions was to be paid. 

Meanwhile, addressing the issue of CPC loans taken from banks, Deputy Minister Gamage said that it had to pay $ 1.140 billion to the Bank of Ceylon, $ 842 million to People’s Bank while $ 251 million had to be paid to the Iranian Oil Company.

“The CPC has a total of $ 2,233 million in debt to be paid,” she said while noting that subsidies given for kerosene, petrol and diesel were causing immense losses to the corporation, with it incurring a loss of Rs. 69 billion thus far. 

Remarking on CPC debt payments, the Deputy Minister said that Rs. 15.049 billion in interest was paid in 2015, Rs. 11.405 billion in 2016 and Rs. 8.890 billion has been paid as of this month in 2017. “Everyone is saying that the CPC runs with colossal losses. I accept that all such claims are true but if you look at the facts, it is clear that we cannot refuse providing fuel to state institutions; even they cannot pay us back immediately. Furthermore, we cannot operate without taking loans. For those loans we are paying a huge amount of interest. This trend is not good for the CPC,” she pointed out.