Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Prof. Anil Jayantha told Parliament yesterday that there is no fuel shortage in the country.
Minister Prof. Jayantha accused politically motivated elements of deliberately attempting to create public panic by highlighting queues at petrol stations and falsely attributing them to an impending fuel scarcity.
Responding to concerns raised by MPs Ravi Karunanayake and Gayantha Karunathilaka, the Minister said the panic stemmed from confusion over a three percent commission and a related price cap, which had been in place since 2019 but had neither been implemented nor communicated to fuel distributors—possibly because fuel prices had not increased at the time. As prices began to rise, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) set a lower limit of Rs 100 and a price cap of Rs 162. However, for political or other reasons, this decision was not conveyed to fuel distributors until 2022, he said.
An audit by the Auditor General’s Department later revealed that losses incurred by the CPC as a result. “Since coming to power, our Government was committed to correcting this,” he said.
He said that fuel distributors had placed an excessive number of orders with the CPC before abruptly halting distribution. “We believe this was orchestrated by a select few to create an artificial fuel shortage and incite public unrest,” he added.
Minister of Health and Mass Media and Chief Government Whip, Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, also said there was no fuel shortage and added there was no need for the public to queue unnecessarily.
He said 19 million litres of fuel had been ordered so far and, as distributors had placed higher-than-usual orders, there would be no shortfall. He said that while fuel orders are typically not accepted after 7 a.m., due to the current situation, people had been purchasing more, prompting distributors to accept orders throughout the day.
The Minister said the Government would reassess the situation and, if necessary, allow orders to be placed on Sunday (today), despite the usual suspension of orders that day to prevent any disruption.
He called upon the public not to panic unnecessarily over fears of a fuel shortage. “There were queues at certain places yesterday. It is true. We thank you for pointing it out. Whether it is right or wrong, when a message goes out that there is an issue with a supply service, people start panic buying. That is what happened yesterday. There is no point waiting in queues and buying extra fuel. There is enough fuel. Dealers have placed orders, and CPC will process them. I want to say not just to the tourism industry but to all industries and sectors, we will provide fuel without any shortages,” he said.
Fuel dealers have placed 3,125 orders, of which 2,914 have been delivered, Leader of the House and Cabinet Minister Bimal Ratnayake told Parliament yesterday. The decision to scrap the previous commission and discount rate awarded to dealers was made based on a court ruling, and the Government does not intend to go against it, he said.
Fuel orders through the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) totalled 1,869, with Lanka IOC (LIOC) receiving 480, Sinopec 399, and RM Parks (Shell) 377. Of these, 1,696, 471, 381, and 366 were delivered. “This country has gone through enough. We do not want unnecessary issues,” he said.
