If daily fuel supply regularised, benefit of lowered fuel prices given to people: Gemunu

The Lanka Private Bus Owners' Association (LPBOA) chairman Gemunu Wijerathne today said that they are ready to give the benefit of the recent fuel price reduction to the people, only if the fuel supply is regularised to operate at least 50% of the buses from their total fleet. 

Addressing the media, he said compared to the recent fuel price reduction, we are ready to give that benefit to the people, based on the provisions of the national policy and according to the price formula.

"We cannot give that benefit while waiting in long queues to pump diesel from SLTB depots. We have to wait in queues for at least three days to get 40, 70, or 90 litres of diesel," Wijerathne said.

We only receive 5% of the diesel from the SLTB depots and 95% is not supplied, he said.

Therefore, we had to discuss with the Power and Energy Minister and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) chairman on this matter and to get the fuel supply arrangements are streamlined.

With the limited number of private buses are on the roads and those buses are always seen overcrowded are subject to break and the passengers' lives too are at risk . At this critical juncture, we cannot take them for repairs. Therefore, there is a need of a proper mechanism to supply fuel directly from the CPC filling stations.

"We cannot operate even 50% of our total fleet with the supplied fuel through the SLTB depots. With this current fuel crisis, an average of 15 and 10% of private buses are in operation within a period of the past one month, "Wijerathne said.

He said a maximum of only 3,000 buses were operated daily for a period of the past one month and a minimum of 1,000 buses. Also there were instances that only 500 buses were on the roads at certain times.

3000 buses could be  operated if diesel is supplied through the SLTB depots.

At least 600,000 litres of diesel should be supplied to keep 50% buses on the roads, which is between 6,000 and 6,500 buses. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)