President announces relief package

By Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera   

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake yesterday announced that the government has planned to provide a relief package of Rs. 100 billion for three months from May for people as fuel concessions and financial support.   

Making a special statement in Parliament, the President said fisheries sector, farmers, small tea holders and low income families will be benefitted by the relief package specially in the festive season.  He said the government will introduce cost-effective pricing for fuel from May adding that after calculating the price based on cost, a concession of Rs. 100 per litre for diesel and 20 per litre for petrol will be provided for three months. “Rs. 60 billion has been allocated for this,” he said.    The President said however, prices of Super Diesel and Super Petrol will be calculated based on market price.   

He said a special relief package is designed to benefit the fisheries sector where small fishing boats will be provided with Rs. 50 concession on a litre of petrol, diesel or kerosene in addition to the Rs. 100 rupee concession of upto 25 litres daily upto 25 days.   

“They will get 625 litres for 25 days with a concession of Rs. 31, 250 monthly,” he said.   

The President said multi-day trawlers will be given a Rs. 150,000 concession on fuel.   

He said a bag of urea fertilizer will be given for paddy farmers at Rs. 10,200 despite the price hike in the world market where a Rs. 1.7 billion additional cost has to be borne for this.   

The President said Rs. 3,000 fertilizer subsidy will be given for supplementary food crops and Rs. 5,000 for small tea holders.   

The President said Rs. 17,500 Aswesuma allowance will be increased to Rs. 25,000, a Rs. 10,000 allowance to Rs. 15,000 and others will be given a Rs. 2,500 increment for April.   

He said it is estimated that a Rs. 32 billion loss will be incurred for power generation for three months from May due to low hydro power generation, increase of fuel prices and use of other sources in place of substandard coal.