Affordable Rides

October 25, 2006 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Wednesday cut retail fuel prices, to ease living costs and inflationary pressures, though the treasury still owes the state petroleum giant over 13 billion rupees. With effective midnight, petrol at the pump will be priced 5.00 rupees less at 92.00 rupees, and diesel goes down 2.00 rupees to 60.00 rupees, state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corp said.

Kerosene, widely perceived to be consumed by the poorest of the poor, remains at 48.00 rupees a litre.

The fuel price revision will also apply to across Indian oil retailer Lanka IOC’s 160 retail outlets, its Managing Director K Ramakrishnan said.

A net oil importer, Sri Lanka last lowered fuel prices on October 5, as global crude prices climbed down from its record highs of 75 dollars to about 61 dollars a barrel.

We last bought crude on October 18 at 58 dollars a barrel. But U.S. dollar is currently very strong against the rupee, so we have managed to defer the payments by a month, Petroleum Minister A H M Fowzie told reporters late Wednesday.

The Sri Lankan, which rupee sank to a lifetime low of 107.65 last week as dealers speculated on the currency in the backdrop of a worsening security