Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2020-03-18

Providing preference to the Local Manufacturers when procuring Cables and Conductors for the Ceylon Electricity Board and its Subsidiaries

- Due to the tariff concessions given to the Ceylon Electricity Board and its subsidiaries in the importation of goods, the Ceylon Electricity Board and its subsidiaries have a tendency to purchase imported productions of foreign manufacturers since their prices have been declined when compared with that of the local productions and this has adversely affected the local cable production industry.
Under the circumstance, in order to ensure reasonable competition for the domestic manufacturers, in the procurement process of purchasing cables, conductors and galvanized steel manufactured in Sri Lanka for Ceylon Electricity Board and its subsidiaries, the proposal made by the Minister of Power & Energy, to provide an extra relief, by considering in the evaluation, all the relevant taxes to be paid by importers at importation of such products in addition to the existing 20% of domestic preference during the technical evaluation, was approved by the Cabinet.