Govt. gives undertaking not to jack up fuel prices for three months

By Saman Indrajith

The government would not increase fuel prices within the next three months, Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila told Parliament yesterday.

 The Minister said so in response to a question raised by Ratnapura District SJB MP Hesha Withanage.

 Fuel prices were last increased in Sept 2019 during the Yahapalana government, the Minister said adding that the incumbent government had not revised the prices since then. The world market fuel prices too had increased as at present yet the government had so far maintained the same prices without change, the minister said.

Minister Gammanpila said the Yahapalana government in 2013 handed over 100 tanks in the Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm to India but the incumbent government has started negotiations with India to get most of them back under the purview of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation. Some of the tanks are managed by the Indian Oil Company.

The Minister said that in one of his recent speeches, he spoke about the Trincomalee Oil Tank farm and one media organization had mistranslated his Sinhala speech to English. The Indian High Commission in Colombo made a clarification on the issue later on. The Indian High Commission explanation further established his standpoint, the Minister said.