30 March 2021 07:02 pm
Co-Cabinet Spokesman Udaya Gammanpila yesterday assured that there will be no increase in fuel or gas prices in the near future despite the increase of petroleum products in the global market.
Responding to a journalist at the weekly Cabinet news briefing today, Minister Gammanpila stressed that the blockade in the Suez Canal caused by a huge container carrier would not affect fuel purchases done to Sri Lanka.
“We purchase petroleum products from Singapore and the Middle Eastern countries. The fuel prices have been increased in the global market but the government has no intention to increase the prices. We use the ‘Fuel Stability Fund of Rs. 200 billion launched in mid 2020 to absorb the increased fuel price and do not pass it on to the consumer,” he emphasized.
He also said Minister Bandula Gunawardana never speculated a fuel price hike but he only said that there was a possibility to increase fuel price in the domestic market in the backdrop of increase in the international market.(Sandun A Jayasekera)