COLOMBO (News 1st);It was revealed at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into coal procurement transactions that the use of substandard coal has resulted in an additional cost of over Rs. 4.5 billion within four months.As the Norochcholai Power Plant has been unable to meet the full electricity capacity required for the national grid, the demand has had to be met by other power plants.Accordingly during this period, this requirement was primarily fulfilled by the Sobadhanavi Power Plant in Kerawalapitiya.Although the Sobadhanavi plant is designed to operate on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), it is currently operating on diesel.It was also revealed at the Commission yesterday that the payment terms agreed upon for the import of substandard coal are also questionable.Professor Saliya Jayasekara, Chairman of the Electricity Generation Lanka (Pvt.) Limited, told the Commission that an agreement had been reached to pay 80% of the relevant fee to the supplier based on the laboratory report issued at the loading port.It was revealed that only 20% of the payment was agreed to be made based on the report obtained in Sri Lanka.
