Petrol & Diesel can be sold for Rs. 250/- ; PUCSL Chief tells COPE

COLOMBO (News 1st); The Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission (PUCSL) has made a personal statement in COPE that petrol and diesel can be sold at a price of approximately Rs. 250.

According to the data, petrol and diesel can be sold at a price of approximately Rs. 250 in Sri Lanka, said Janaka Ratnayake, Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL).

He stated this when the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) met in Parliament on Wednesday (06) under the chairmanship of the Member of Parliament (Prof.) Charita Herath to examine the Auditor General's report for the years 2018 and 2019 and current performance of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka.

Explaining this further, Rathnayake mentioned that this was revealed when checking the statistics on the import prices of petroleum and the taxes levied by the government.

Accordingly, he pointed out that petrol and diesel can be provided in Sri Lanka at Rs. 200 less than the current price. Accordingly, petrol and diesel can be sold at a price of approximately Rs. 250.

He also said that the government has collected a tax of Rs. 280 for one liter of diesel imported on July 1st. He said that this is his personal statement and he would make the statement after reviewing the data.

COPE chairman mentioned that the statement made by PUCSL Chairman regarding the fuel price is more serious and the attention of the country is being drawn on this.

Therefore, officials from the Ministry of Power and Energy and the PUCSL Chairman are expected to be summoned before the COPE to inspect the matter in the future, said Prof. Herath.

COPE paid attention to the fact that Rs. 45,873,483 were paid to the staff of the institution under 11 types of allowances. Also, the committee paid more attention to the fact that Rs. 86,808,538 of the total operating cost, (49% of the total amount) had been spent on public awareness programs.

In particular, attention was paid to the approved electricity generation plan for the years 2018-2037. The officials present mentioned that data on another new generation plan was submitted in the year 2021 and was not approved as the appropriate requirements were not met.

Here, the Committee mentioned that when the political authorities change, problems arise due to the change of these plans, so all parties should pay more attention to this.

Furthermore, under the Electricity (Distribution) Performance Standards Orders mentioned in a special gazette notice issued in 2016, the commission was assigned the responsibility of preparing and implementing the performance rules.

Thus, the work that should be implemented within 36 months after the decree came into effect, although almost 4 years have passed, the committee drew attention to the fact that even the adaptation phase, which was planned to be completed in 2018, has not yet been completed.

The officials who were present mentioned that this was planned to be done in 3 phases in 3 years and that it has not happened yet due to the need to change the system and the problems in the relationship between the parties involved.