Tuesday Apr 23, 2024
Tuesday Apr 23, 2024
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The Government yesterday increased fuel prices across the board, forcing further agony on people already suffering from severe shortages.
As per the latest price revision of Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), a litre of 92 Octane pet-rol has increased by Rs. 50 to Rs. 470, while 95 Octane petrol up by Rs. 100 to Rs. 550, auto die-sel up by Rs. 60 to Rs. 460 and super diesel up by Rs. 75 to Rs. 520.
The Lanka IOC also announced that it has decided to increase fuel prices from yesterday to match the CPC rates.
This is the sixth time the CPC revised prices, while it is the seventh time LIOC announced up-ward revision during the past six months.
Analysts opined the move will further aggravate the rise in the cost of living amidst the worsen-ing economic crisis, though it would make institutional sense in terms of fiscal management.
Separately, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara claimed the CPC was still getting mixed results from the price revisions as per the pricing formula.
Speaking to journalists, he pointed out that the CPC was still incurring losses for Lanka Auto Diesel and Kerosene, even after the latest price revision that took place yesterday.
A loss of Rs. 334.39 is incurred per litre of Kerosene, while a loss of Rs. 8.52 is incurred per litre of Auto Diesel.
However, the CPC has managed to make profits from all the petrol products and super diesel. The CPC earns a profit of Rs. 15.57 from 92 Octane petrol litre and Rs. 68.61 from 95 Octane petrol per litre. It also records a profit of Rs. 20.27 from Super Diesel per litre.
In addition, he said the Government was making every effort to find the required funds to meet the monthly fuel bill of $650 million, insisting that the consumption has to be reduced to $350 million to manage the situation.
He said that a token system will be implemented at fuel queues in the country from today to manage the existing queues.
The Minister said that the security council had convened on Saturday night based on the in-structions of the President and the Prime Minister and has decided to deploy Tri-Forces and the Police at fuel stations around the country and provide a token to everyone who is currently waiting in the queue.
He further said that the token will be unique to the particular fuel station and the phone num-ber of the person waiting in the queue will also be taken.
“We will not be able to provide fuel to all the fuel stations in the next few days until a new shipment is received. The plan is to call and inform the token holder, once a fuel load is re-ceived to the particular fuel station, based on the quantity received,” the Minister said.
He reiterated that this system is only to manage the existing queues and requested the motor-ists not to queue up near filling stations as the fuel stocks are ‘very limited'.
As per him, only 9,000 tons of diesel are currently available in reserves, whilst stocks up to 5,500 tons of 92 Octane and 6,000 tons of 95 Octane petrol can be obtainable. Of the 8,000 tons of diesel is available at the two Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals, and the remaining stocks have been distributed among 14 depots operated by the Sri Lanka Transport Board.
When asked if all these measures suggest a lockdown, he admitted to advising the Government for a partial lockdown to limit travel amidst the fuel shortage. “As the subject Minister, I have advised the Government on a partial lockdown considering the shortage of fuel and to limit un-necessary travelling,” he added.
The Minister said discussions are currently underway to obtain a further 10,000 tons of diesel from the Lanka IOC terminal in Trincomalee.
He pointed out that four separate groups from the Ministry are working on Petrol, Diesel, Crude Oil, and Jet Fuel imports.
As per the Minister, the teams are working on 130 plus proposals for fuel delivery to Sri Lanka.
“At the moment, CPC is not able to confirm the arrival dates of the shipments with the new de-velopments. Refinery operations will be temporarily closed until the next crude shipment. We are working with all new and existing suppliers. I apologise for the delay and inconvenience.”
Minister Wijesekara said the next 12 months will be challenging for Sri Lanka in terms of fuel delivery, adding that it may or may be impossible to eliminate the fuel queues, he said before the press briefing.
However, he asserted that bunker suppliers have been granted permission to deliver fuel for industries that deal in foreign currency established in Sri Lanka.
“The fuel bill of $650 million is something that Sri Lanka cannot bear at the moment. There-fore, consumption will have to be slashed to at least $ 350 million and a system that will priori-tise public transport will be introduced,” he told journalists.
The Minister also said that overseas fuel companies based in countries that produce fuel will be invited to set up business in Sri Lanka, and CPC filling stations will be provided as the CPC alone cannot undertake the burden of importing fuel to Sri Lanka.
The Minister explained that the CPC will become a more service-provider-based institution, to facilitate fuel imports.
