Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka, Janaka Rathnayake has filed a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition at the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka challenging the electricity tariff hike implemented in February 2023.
Issuing a statement, Janaka Rathnayake stated that the petition has been filed in his capacity as an electricity consumer and in the public interest, especially those falling in the lowest brackets units of electricity consumption.
Rathnayake has challenged the process by which the PUCSL has purportedly approved the tariff hike proposed by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) contrary to established legal procedures, claiming that no such lawful approval was given by the PUCSL.
Secondly, he has challenged on the basis that the PUCSL is duty-bound to ensure that the interests of all citizens are met when approving a change in tariffs, claiming that the new tariff hike is unfair to those in the lowest brackets units of electricity consumption.
In his petition, the PUCSL Chairman points out that it is unreasonable that some consumers are made to pay the price of electricity generated at a much higher cost. (NewsWire)