Finance Ministry to appoint committee to decide fuel prices

Thursday, 28 June 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Finance Ministry has been given the go-ahead by Cabinet to establish a committee to update fuel prices on the fifth day of every third month.

The Government last month announced the introduction of a cost based price formula for fuel to be executed from 11 May. Cabinet this week approved a Cabinet paper presented by Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera to appoint a committee with members from the Treasury and Petroleum Resources Ministry to evaluate the price according to the prices of the last two months.

The new prices will be announced on the fifth day of every third month.

The Government has insisted that the price revisions are necessary to reduce costs of State utility the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC). The move was supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has a $1.5 billion Extended Fund Facility program with the Sri Lankan Government.

Reducing losses of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and putting them on a more financially-sound footing and promoting fiscal consolidation are key pillars of the program. The IMF has also called for a transparent power pricing formula, which the Government had initially committed to implement in September.