Public to benefit by world oil price drop
Chamikara WEERASINGHE
The government has turned its attention to provide a fair chunk of
benefits to the public from the downward trend of petroleum prices in
the international market.
Petroleum Industries Ministry sources yesterday said, the government
has focused its attention on giving temporary and immediate benefits to
the public, given that the present downward trend of international oil
prices will continue for a further few weeks.
The ministry officials categorically stated that they did not
contemplate any action as claimed by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna(JVP)
Secretary General Tilvin Silva on Sunday at a press conference, to stop
any possibilities of people deriving benefits from the situation of
falling global oil prices.
The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has already committed to spend Rs
6.13 per litre on petrol, Rs 9.24 per litre on diesel and Rs 6.84 per
litre of kerosene to provide relief to petroleum consumers in the
country.
The government has spent Rs 17.97 billion from January this year up
to now to provide fuel needed to generate electricity to meet the
country’s electricity demand. Accordingly, the Ceylon Petroleum
Corporation has run into a loss of Rs 17.97 billion by supplying fuel at
concessionary rates to the power and energy sector, sources said.
In spite of JVP General Secretary Silva’s claim that the Corporation
had undergone a loss of Rs 490 million from one of its oil imports
involving 20,000 metric tons of petrol, the Corporation has recovered
from that loss by selling what had been left of that petrol consignment
to the same company at a rate higher than the imported cost, sources
said.
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