(VIDEO) Anura Kumara objects towards shutting down PUCSL

COLOMBO (News1st): Opposition parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake has criticized moves to shut down the Public Utilities Commission (PUCSL), the regulator for the country's power industry.

"It cannot be abolished as the PCUSL Act was passed by Parliament. The cabinet must inform either the President or his secretary about this," the Jathika Jana Balawegaya leader said in Parliament.

President's Secretary P.B. Jayasundera had written to treasury secretary S.R. Attygalle, on December 1, instructing to shut down the regulator amidst moves to establish a 300-megawatt power plant in the country.

"The government is going to sign the purchasing agreement for the power plant. It is the PUCSL that recommends the rate at which power should be purchased," Dissanayake pointed out.

He observed that it was the regulatory body that prevented authorities from burdening the public with high electricity bills and stressed that abolishing it would pave the way for corruption.