Sri Lanka's state-owned electricity producer in serious debt: minister

COLOMBO, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said Friday that the state-owned electricity producer Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) owes 137.9 billion rupees to independent power producers and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.

The minister said that the CEB owes renewable power producers 28.5 billion rupees, thermal power producers 76.8 billion rupees, and rooftop power owners around 1 billion rupees.

"In 2021, the CEB's generation cost was 23.6 billion rupees a month and revenue was 21.7 billion rupees. However, in 2022 the generation cost has risen to 33 billion rupees a month while revenue stayed the same," Wijesekera said.

Recently, power regulator the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka authorized the CEB to increase electricity tariffs by 75 percent. (1 U.S. dollar equals 361 Sri Lankan rupees)