No matter who says what the electricity costs in Sri Lanka are still competitive. There is no way that we are going to give commercial entities industrial rates. That is simply not going to happen. There are some banks and hotels that are being listed as industrial. There are five star hotels that are paying Rs.8 for a unit while three star hotels have to pay Rs.23 per unit. These instances will not be tolerated by us. We cannot give concessions to commercial entities. Industrial companies will get concessions if they are export oriented. That is all,” he said adding that the private sector was well positioned to gain benefits from the high performing economy.
Ranawaka responding to questions of whether consideration will be given to at least select local industries such as ceramics noted that companies should change to non electricity dependent technologies. “We already addressed this issue by telling them to work during off-peak hours in the night,” he said adding “If this is impractical then there are alternatives such as Dendro Technology.
What happened when the government gave a kerosene concession was that many plants that ran on firewood and Dendro converted to electricity.
http://www.ft.lk/2011/03/21/champika-unplugs-private-sector/