Ananda Palitha, the convener of the Petroleum Trade Union of the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya, was arrested by the police recently for announcing to the media that there would be a fuel shortage in Sri Lanka.
The government at the time said that what he was saying was untrue and that Sri Lanka had enough fuel for six months. Despite the government saying so, the oil crisis has escalated today.
It is a well known fact that with the collapse of the Sri Lankan economy and the appreciation of the dollar, the purchase of oil in Sri Lanka became a serious problem. Because of this we had to get loans from different countries. A senior official of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation said on the 17th that the government was taking a loan of US $ 500 million from India to buy fuel.
According to the Lankadeepa newspaper, an official said that the loan was being obtained with the coordination of Indian High Commission due to the close relationship between the two countries and that the money would be used exclusively for petrol and diesel imports.
Meanwhile, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has requested the Minister of Energy to take immediate action to increase fuel prices. It is reported that the Chairman of the Corporation Sumith Wijesinghe has met the Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila on the 18th and held discussions regarding this. Mr. Wijesinghe had stated to the media that the CPC could not continue without raising the price of oil as the price of oil in the world market continued to rise. According to Sumith Wijesinghe, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation is losing Rs. 16 per liter of petrol and Rs. 30 per liter of diesel.
Meanwhile, the train service which was scheduled to start from tomorrow (21) has been postponed until further notice. The General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Railway Station Masters’ Association, Kasun Chamara, yesterday (19) said that although the train schedule has been rescheduled for Thursday, all operations have been completed and the train operators have been informed that the train will not run until further notice. Is the reason for this cancellation a health problem? Or is it some other problem?
Meanwhile, several fuel bowsers had gone to the Muthurajawela and Kolonnawa oil storage complexes yesterday (19) to fill bowsers to distribute fuel island wide. But all Bowser has returned empty-handed. They had not been refueled. Due to this, there were long queues at petrol stations in various areas from this morning (20) to collect fuel.
Shani