Sri Lanka lacks foreign exchange to cover the cost of fuel imports, energy minister Udaya Gammanpila said Monday, adding that the country seeks to arrange payment for a shipment of 40,000 tons of diesel. Gammanpila said that his ministry has discussed with the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) to provide $35 million in funds to cover the cost of the fuel shipment that arrived in the Colombo port on Sunday. “Even with this fuel, we will only have diesel for six days,” he said, indicating that the country could be heading for “a serious fuel shortage.” The state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has started rationing distribution in preparation for a fuel shortage crisis, issuing just about half of what is regularly distributed to pumping stations, the minister added. Secretary of the Energy Ministry K.D.R. Olga said that CPC amassed liabilities of $3.7 billion last year, …
RSS Feed | The Epoch Times