Govt. hints at possible CPC fuel hike

• Cabinet Co-Spokesman Dullas Alahapperuma says move influenced by LIOC, global price hikes
• Affirms no discussion took place regarding fuel prices during Cabinet meeting on Monday
• CPC Chief Sumith Wijesinghe warns if no hike, it will incur massive loss of Rs. 48.30 per litre of Diesel and Rs. 15.68 per litre of Petrol
• Says customer shift from LIOC will widen CPC losses; Treasury unresponsive to hike request
• Govt. urges electricity consumers to use uninterrupted power supply sparingly

By Charumini de Silva

Cabinet Co-Spokesman and Mass Media Minister Dullas Alahapperuma yesterday hinted that there could be a hike in prices by loss-making Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), influenced by

Cabinet Co-Spokesman and Mass Media Minister  Dullas Alahapperuma

international market developments and Sunday’s upward revision by Lanka IOC.

“The Lanka IOC increased their prices in line with the global market rates. The CPC Chairman also stated that they will incur a massive loss particularly due to LIOC price hike. Sometimes, there could be a possible fuel hike pertaining to these situations,” he said in response to a query posed during the post-Cabinet meeting media briefing yesterday.

The Minister however stressed that there were no discussions with regards to the fuel prices or hike during the Monday’s Cabinet meeting.

CPC Chairman Sumith Wijesinghe said if the prices for February continue unchanged for the entire month, they will suffer a loss of Rs. 48.30 per litre of Diesel, and Rs. 15.68 per litre of Petrol.

LIOC raised petrol 92-Octane by Rs. 7 to Rs. 184 a litre and Diesel by Rs. 3 to Rs. 124 with effect from Monday. The company said despite the hike, it was still losing Rs. 42 per litre on Diesel and Rs. 10 on Petrol.

With LIOC customers shifting to cheaper CPC, Wijesinghe said the move will further increase losses at the State-owned entity.

He claimed that CPC had repeatedly requested a price revision from the Treasury, but there was no favourable response from the Government to increase the fuel prices.

The CPC last revised its prices in December with Petrol 92 by Rs. 20 to Rs. 177 per litre, Petrol 95 by Rs. 23 to Rs. 207, Auto Diesel by Rs. 10 to Rs. 121 and Super Diesel by Rs. 15 to Rs. 159.

Separately Cabinet Co-Spokesman Alahapperuma also urged the public to use power supply sparingly considering the national crisis.

He said over 477,000 street lights are in Sri Lanka and to light just 18,000 street lamps within the Colombo city area requires 26 MWs.

“By switching off just one unwanted light bulb at home saves 25 watts and if it is multiplied by all seven million electricity users will account for the size of a power plant. Every little counts at this juncture,” Alahapperuma explained.