Before Ceylon Electricity Board's establishment, Ceylon's electricity sector was decentralized and was run by provincial governing bodies like Municipal councils however, in the 1930s they established a statutory board called "Electricity Board of Ceylon" to take control of the electricity industry but it only lasted a year and its responsibilities were transferred to "Department of Government Electrical Undertakings" but they could only achieve 4% coverage of the country due to them being subject to obey regular rules and procedures of operating as a government department.
Ministries and Departments have to adhere to the Central Government's general circulars and all the laws passed to govern hundreds of such state-run establishments, working with these rules and regulations slows down things so it hinders efficiency. It's not the case for statutory boards. Statutory Boards can formulate and approve their own rules and regulations on how they run their operations. Thus the CEB was established in 1969 to meet the growing demand for electricity with its predecessor could only cover 4% of the country.
Even though the CEB was established, electrical supplies of some urban areas continued to be maintained by municipal councils, they were supplying and collecting fees for the service and were not ready to let go of the income. but their quality of service was poor and they were unable to live up to the expectations of the public. Therefore, they came to a resolution, years after the CEB's establishment, to combine all those municipal councils ran areas and form a company. So the LECO - Lanka Electricity Company Private Ltd was born. It's true that LECO is a private company, but the thing is 100% of its shares are owned by state-owned enterprises. (as far as I know, CEB owns more than 50% of LECO & the rest are owned by Urban Development Authority (UDA), Treasury, and the aforementioned Local Government Authorities. They are receiving the dividends to this day. But the LECO is not producing electricity, they purchase power at low cost from the CEB and sell them to their customers.
LECO is only a distributor (and buys from CEB), while CEB is a generator (has power plants) and distributor.
Ministries and Departments have to adhere to the Central Government's general circulars and all the laws passed to govern hundreds of such state-run establishments, working with these rules and regulations slows down things so it hinders efficiency. It's not the case for statutory boards. Statutory Boards can formulate and approve their own rules and regulations on how they run their operations. Thus the CEB was established in 1969 to meet the growing demand for electricity with its predecessor could only cover 4% of the country.
Even though the CEB was established, electrical supplies of some urban areas continued to be maintained by municipal councils, they were supplying and collecting fees for the service and were not ready to let go of the income. but their quality of service was poor and they were unable to live up to the expectations of the public. Therefore, they came to a resolution, years after the CEB's establishment, to combine all those municipal councils ran areas and form a company. So the LECO - Lanka Electricity Company Private Ltd was born. It's true that LECO is a private company, but the thing is 100% of its shares are owned by state-owned enterprises. (as far as I know, CEB owns more than 50% of LECO & the rest are owned by Urban Development Authority (UDA), Treasury, and the aforementioned Local Government Authorities. They are receiving the dividends to this day. But the LECO is not producing electricity, they purchase power at low cost from the CEB and sell them to their customers.
LECO is only a distributor (and buys from CEB), while CEB is a generator (has power plants) and distributor.
