CEB raids continue, with almost Rs. 25 million in record income.

The Minister of Power and Energy Patali Champika Ranawaka has established and empowered the special Investigations Unit with the aim of rooting out all Fraud and corruption within the CEB, in the drive toward achieving the goal of making the establishment a profit making organization providing a quality service to the people and heading toward the vision of achieving total electricity coverage for the entire nation by the year 2012. Accordingly this unit earned a record income during the month of July of almost Rs. 25 million conducting raids in the Amparai, Kalmunai area.

341 cases of people obtaining electricity illegally has been reported, while of this 278 cases were by way of altering the metres, while 63 were where hooks had been used to obtain electricity illegally.

The CEB special investigations unit through raids conducted during the month of June alone had collected a total sum of Rs. 24,483,404.88 while Rs. Rs. 3,619,000.00 was collected as court fines, and Rs. 20,864,404.88 was recovered as losses to the CEB. This is a record set during the recent past.

The Ministry of Power and Electricity further stated that through these illegal methods of obtaining electricity, the CEB incurs heavy financial losses, at a time when the establishment has just been resurrected from financial ruin, and further urged the general public to assist in bringing to book these fraudsters who are attempting to once again drag this organization to the brink of financial ruin.

The Ministry urged the law abiding citizens of this country to report such fraudulent activities (meter tampering and using hooks) to the special investigations unit on telephone no. 2422259.