The Supreme Court has ruled that the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) must pay annual interest on security deposits collected from all consumers when providing electricity connections.

The court ordered the state-owned electricity provider to pay an annual interest rate of 11.67%, equivalent to what the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) pays for such deposits, to all electricity consumers, including domestic users.

This ruling follows a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition filed last year by  Electricity and Renewable Energy Consumers’ Association seeking an order for the payment of annual interest under Article 28/III of the CEB Act. The case named the Ministry of Power, the Minister, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka, and the Attorney General as respondents.

The petitioners argued that the CEB is obligated to pay interest on security deposits collected for new service connections. However, since the CEB had not made these payments, the Electricity Consumers’ Association filed the petition, seeking a Supreme Court ruling on the violation of their fundamental rights.

A three-member Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices S. Thurairaja and Sobhitha Rajakaruna, took up the petitions for consideration today (28).