P’ment debates state of utilities, services

By Ashwin Hemmathagama

Our Lobby Correspondent

Inefficiency of state owned transport services reducing its stake from over 75% to 25% for both CTB and railway services against private busses catering to 44% of the transport requirements of the nation was taken into debate at Committee Stage Program of Appropriation Bill – Budget 2013.

Moving the debate, M. Joseph Michael Perera (MP – United National Party) highlighted the inefficiency of state owned transport services – CTB and railways – due to corruption, mismanagement and inefficiency.

“State transport services are essential but adequate moneys are not given from the Treasury where salaries and other related payments are not met on time. You allocated Rs. 500 million for railways but only gave Rs. 200 million. The minister is not able to control the situation and eliminate corruption and increase efficiency,” said Perera.

According to Minister of Private Transport Services C.B. Rathnayake, a national policy is now in preparation to uplift the transport services of Sri Lanka. As a start, the CTB and the private buses will share an integrated timetable from 1 January 2013. “The competition between the private buses and the CTB has to be eliminated. Because of this unnecessary competition, both sides are making losses,” he said.

In response, Minister of Transport Nimal Welgama said: “We have received money to pay gratuity to CTB workers but the ongoing court case prevents us from proceeding. The Treasury is giving us Rs. 10,100 per employee for salary payments at the CTB. I have recommended that buses should not be given to the CTB for free and instead should pay 75% of the value on a monthly lease.”

UNP MP Gayantha Karunatileka stated that the competition between the CTB and the private buses are unavoidable when the number of vehicles doesn’t tally. According to him there are 4,000 CTB buses in operation and the private busses exceed 21,000.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Ports and Highways Rohitha Abeygunawardana talking about his ministry, claimed for 28 vessels that were called for at the Hambantota Port. “We are looking at US$ 32.5 million income for 2013, US$ 87.5 million and US$ 159 million in 2020 and 2030 respectively,” said Abeygunawardana.

Voicing his concerns about the Ceylon Electricity Board and the Petroleum Corporation, UNP MP Dayasiri Jayasekara said: “Minister Amunugama talks about five evil spirits but I will talk about two. The loss at CPC is over Rs. 94,000 million. This is due to inability to have regular maintenance and upgrades accordingly. As a result, two workers died and two are still unconscious. Instead of the distributions carried out from Muthurajawela, the losses have increased by using Kolonnawa. The damaged pipeline replacement will cost US$ 45 million.”

“According to the Auditor General, the CPC is a loss making institution but the LIOC is running at a profit. How is this possible? You knew the implications to Sri Lanka from the sanctions against Iran but failed to take necessary action. CPC owes Rs. 44 billion to the Bank of Ceylon. We are quite sure that tender procedures followed to allocate oil excavation are not different from the procedure followed to allocate telecast rights to the Carlton Network,” said United National Party MP Ravi Karunanayake.

In response, Minister of Petroleum Industries A.D. Susil Premajayantha stated the local petroleum prices were kept unchanged despite international fluctuations, which forced the CPC to incur a loss of Rs. 37.49 per litre for a period of nine months. “State institutions owe us Rs. 104 billion. These are the reasons for losses. We are also looking at laying a new pipeline within next six to seven months.”  Minister of Power and Energy Patali Champika Ranawaka said: “In 1994, we had 1.4 million electricity subscribers in Sri Lanka. Today this has reached 5.3 million. The current crisis in the power sector will be sorted with the completion of the second stage of Puttalam power station.

“We are to give electricity to all by the end of 2017. With the reforms coming in, CEB turned out Rs. 15 million profits after 14 years of continued loss making. For the first time in history, the reservoir Victoria and the Parakrama Samudraya tank dried up. This drought driven loss has totalled to Rs. 23 billion.”