We are not an electrically safe country, Nilantha Sapumanage, Director Inspectorate of Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka told a forum in Colombo organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
Every other day a person in the country dies due to electrocution.
In 2012 deaths by electrocution had risen to 180 from 134 in 2010 in a country of 20 million people where penetration is about 90 percent.
The global benchmark is one death per million people indicating that deaths in Sri Lanka were almost ten times as high as an 'electricity safe' country in that year.
The PUCSL want to cut deaths caused by electricity to 50 by 2016.
The commission said through various public awareness programmes the deaths have already been slashed to 73 in 2013.
Most of the deaths were reported in the Kandy and Vavuniya districts.
"In Kandy people use illegal power tapping to kill wild animals or protection of the cultivation but in Vavuniya it is to get the electricity supply