Further to our conversation, we attempted to trace this case of the Supreme Court regarding a two-tier tariff rate proposed by the Ceylon Electricity Board.
It appears that this case was a Fundamental Rights Application filed in the Petitioners Nalandaramaya Chief Incumbent Ven. Thiniyawala Palitha Thera of Nugegoda, Chandradasa Gamaaththie of Consumers Association and H.S.P. Piyadasa cited the CEB, its General Manager D.R. Pullaperuma, Power and Energy Minister John Senerviratne and the Attorney General as respondents. Two Catholic priests representing the Catholic Church were also allowed to intervene in the case.
President’s Counsel Dr. Jayampathi Wickramaratne with P. Liyanaarachchi and Pubudini Wickramaratne appeared for Buddhist monks and K. Tiranagama with Hasanthi Ratnayake and Nadee Gunaratne appeared for the third petitioner. Then Deputy Solicitor General Sanjay Rajaratnam appeared for Respondents.
The Petitioners stated that under the new tariff structure for domestic purposes, the unit price is computed on the basis of the total number of units consumed whereas under the revision of 2007, all domestic consumers paid Rs 90 for the first 30 units, Rs 14 for the next 30 units, Rs 25 for the next 30 units and so on.
They stated that under the new tariff structure, the unit rate depends on the total number of units consumed. They stated that those who consumed upto 30 units are charged at a basic rate of Rs 3 per unit on all units; those who consumed in excess of 30 units upto 60 units are charged at a basic rate of Rs 4 per unit on all units including the first 30 units; those who consumed in excess of 60 units upto 90 units are charged at a rate of Rs 5.50 per unit in all units including the first 60 units.
They stated that the tariffs structure introduced by the CEB is arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable and violative of their right to equality.
This case was heard by a Bench of the Supreme Court comprised Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva PC with Justice K. Sripavan and Justice P.A. Rathnayake PC in the months of September/October 2008.
Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva PC noted the CEB was unfairly charging high prices under the new tariff formula. He noted that when a customer used 91 units of electricity, is charged a flat rate for the whole 91 units at higher rate applicable to consumers who use over 90 units. “Just because he exceeded one unit, he was made to pay at a higher rate applicable to that particular unit for the whole lot of 91 units,” the Chief Justice noted.
The Chief Justice observed that under the block system consumers have an idea how much they would pay for the units they have consumed. He suggested that there could be an increase of certain percentage for each block and the fuel adjustment charges could be added separately.
The Court granted the CEB two weeks till October 3, 2008, to present an acceptable tariff revision to Court, based on the block system in which the consumed units are broken into blocks prices and are charged separately.
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to revert to the old block based tariff system and formulate a new tariff revision accordingly.
It appears that there is no final judgment of the Supreme Court in this case which has been reported since the CEB has agreed with the aforesaid views of Their Lordships and revised the tariffs accordingly.
So, there may only have been an order of the Supreme Court granting leave to proceed in the first instance and subsequently what is stated above would have been recorded in the proceedings only.
Please see the following news items regarding this matter:
https://www.sundaytimes.lk/081005/News/sundaytimesnews_09.html
https://www.bbc.com/sinhala/news/story/2008/10/printable/081003_electricity_court
http://archives.dailynews.lk/2008/09/20/news26.asp
http://pdfs.island.lk/2008/10/15/p2.pdf
Unfortunately, the case number is not mentioned in the news articles.
