Sri Lanka's Minister of Power and Energy and Transport Services Mahinda Amaraweera stated today (15) that the government has decided to provide massive relief to the public on the electricity bills for the past few months.

The government has made the decision to provide relief considering the allegations and complaints made by the consumers regarding the electricity bills for the months of March, April and May 2020.

The Minister had earlier presented a Cabinet Memorandum to inform the Cabinet on electricity bills and appointed a committee to look into the proposed concessions. The report of the committee was presented to the Cabinet of Ministers last week.

Accordingly, the Government today decided to allow the consumers to pay the amount of electricity bills for the months of March, April and May according to the amount in the bill for February or to the minimum of the bills if the March bill is lower than the February bill, Minister Amaraweera said at a media briefing held at the Ministry of Transport Services.

Also the customers will receive a two-month grace period to pay the bills and the Ceylon Electricity Board has been instructed not to disconnect power during that period.

The government also agreed to provide the funds to the Ceylon Electricity Board to provide these reliefs to the public, the Minister said.

He also said that inquiries will be made into the incorrect pricing of bills due to irregularities in the reading of electricity meters due to COVID-19 and reading the meters have been started from May.

Accordingly, if a person has already paid the bills in accordance with the bills issued for the aforesaid three months, steps will be taken to return the balance or to deduct from future bills, the Minister said.

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