Government cannot continue to bear losses of fuel sale: President

Colombo, May 14 (Daily Mirror) - Claiming that the fuel import cost has gone up by six times in May when compared to February due to the Middle East war, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said yesterday the government cannot continue to bear the losses of the fuel and electricity supply.

Speaking at the special District Coordination Committee meeting to review the progress of the resettlement programme for the people in the Nuwara Eliya District, he said the fuel import cost for February was only USD 98 million and that due to the Middle East war, fuel import cost has gone upto USD 216 million in March, USD 368 million in April and that the fuel import cost is estimated to be USD 522 million in May.

The President said according to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), the CPC incurs huge loss from sale of diesel where a litre of diesel should be sold at nearly Rs. 720 whereas it is sold at Rs. 392. "Even with government subsidy of RS. 100, CPC gets Rs. 492. The CPC need to cover that loss," he said.

The President said the Treasury has taken over some Rs. 84 billion loss of the CPC due to its past mismanagement adding that the Treasury cannot continue to bear the losses of the CPC.

He said people were given some relief in electricity tariff hike as well where only five percent of the electricity consumers were affected in the 18 percent tariff hike this time.