The Ministerial Subcommittee on Cost of Living has decided to revise the fuel prices in the near future taking into consideration the losses incurred due to selling fuel for prices lower than the cost for a long period, Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila said yesterday.
Speaking to the media in Colombo the Minister said that the matter had been also discussed at length by the Ministerial Subcommittee on the Cost of Living.
“We know that the Cost of Living has gone up and people have lost their income and are in a very difficult situation. That is why we did not revise fuel prices for more than 21 months when world market fuel prices were skyrocketing. Unfortunately, the Government is no longer able to bear this huge loss. There has never been an era in history where the prices had not been increased like what we did for such a long time with the world market prices rising”.
The minister further said “the Petroleum Corporation had incurred a loss of Rs.331 billion by 2020 due to the continuous sale of fuel at lower prices than the cost. Also, fuel costs US $ 3 billion a year. The tourism industry has collapsed. Foreign investment has decreased. A large number of foreign workers have returned to Sri Lanka and remittances have decreased. Spending $ 3 billion on fuel imports is a challenge in the midst of this foreign exchange crisis”.
Gammanpila went on to say that the Ministerial Subcommittee on Cost of Living discussed the above situation at length and decided to revise the fuel price in the near future. He said the timing of the revision will not be announced now as this may result in long queues at petrol stations which could adversely affect the Covid control measures.
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