The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) said yesterday it has already decided to take legal action against those who do not provide the dollars required to import fuel to generate electricity.

PUCSL Chairman Janaka Ratnayake

PUCSL Chairman Janaka Ratnayake said legal action will be taken against the relevant parties within the next two to three days.

Ratnayake said the reason for the problem was the lack of response to the request made by the Public Utilities Commission to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and the Treasury to provide $ 150 million to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) for fuel imports to generate electricity.

He said the President’s instructions to the Central Bank to provide dollars to buy fuel were not being implemented as this was not an electricity crisis but a foreign exchange crisis.

The PUCSL Chairman also said that if a total of Rs. 55 billion to the CEB from customers and Rs. 30 billion from the Treasury were given, the power problem would end.

He further stated that the power outage was due to the failure of power plants that generate about 700 megawatts due to lack of fuel. Since it was the responsibility of the Public Utilities Commission to provide uninterrupted power supply, a series of proposals were submitted to the Government to prevent power cuts but it was not implemented.

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