Sri Lanka Power and Energy Minister says all dues to CPC settled by CEB

Sri Lanka's Power and Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka says that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has paid all its dues to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC).

Ranawaka, responding to the allegation that the CEB's failure to pay its dues has resulted in the losses incurred by the CPC, said that the CEB has recorded a Rs. 5 billion profit in 2010 after making all its required payments.

He said that although there was an outstanding amount of monies to be paid to the CPC by the CEB, all the bills have now been paid up to date.

As for the claim that CPC incurred losses in its sales to the CEB, Ranawaka said that CEB purchased diesel at market prices from the CPC.

He added that the price of a liter of furnace oil sold to the CEB was also revised last year by the CPC, as the Corporation wanted to minimize its losses.

According to Ranawaka, the CEB although not a profit based organization will be re-converted into a commercially viable institution within the next five years.

Meanwhile, the CEB issued a statement saying that it has no outstanding debt to any other organization currently and has made clean profits of Rs. 5 billion in 2010.