Sri Lanka President, Fin Min agree to go ahead with fuel price formula, Prices hiked

Jul 10, 2018 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's President and Finance Minister following meeting earlier Tuesday decided to revise its fuel prices according to an earlier cabinet approved pricing formula. Accordingly the price of one litre of Petrol (Octane 92) will be increased by 8 rupees to 145 rupees, Petrol (Octane 95) will be increased by 7 rupees to 155 rupees, effective mid-night Tuesday. Auto Diesel will be increased by 9 rupees and Super Diesel will be increased by 10 rupees. The price of Lanka Kerosene will remain at 70 rupees. There was confusion last week as the Finance Ministry increased fuel prices following a decision of the committee appointed to decide on the price revisions and the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation deciding to sell fuel at the previous rates. The LIOC however revised its fuel prices in keeping with the Finance Ministry statement. "There is no need for politicians to sit in Committee to decide prices," Harsha de Silva,  State minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs tweeted following the decision. "There is a formula and that should determine the price. Not everything has to be politicized. That IS the problem in this country. More frequent the adjustment better it is." Sri Lanka has the lowest fuel prices in South Asia. The price of the price of one litre of Petrol (92-Octane) in Nepal is 149 rupees while in Bangladesh and India its 159 and 169 rupees respectively. In 2015 the price of a litre of 92-octane petrol was reduced from 157 to 117 rupees while the price of 95-octane petrol has been come down from 158 to 128 rupees.