Sri Lanka raises retail fuel prices
Sunday, 1 July 2007
COLOMBO, June 30 (Xinhua): The Sri Lankan government raised its retail fuel prices midnight Friday, the third time within two months, officials said today.
Officials at the government petroleum entity Ceylon Petroleum Corporation said today that petrol retail price was raised by 4. 7 per cent while the price of diesel largely used in the public transport and commercial sector was raised by 5.9 per cent.
Accordingly a liter of petrol would be 111 rupees (1 U.S. dollar) while the new diesel price would be 71 rupees (about 64 U. S. cents) per liter. The price hikes came into effect midnight Friday.
This is the third time the fuel prices have been raised in the last two months and was necessitated by high cost of global oil prices, officials added.
Sri Lanka imports all its crude oil needs and is dependent heavily on the market prices.
The government early this month appointed a ministerial committee headed by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake to recommend measures that need to be taken to cushion the impact of fuel costs on the island's cost of living.
The committee was even looking at the option of rationing the use of fuel, officials said.
Officials at the government petroleum entity Ceylon Petroleum Corporation said today that petrol retail price was raised by 4. 7 per cent while the price of diesel largely used in the public transport and commercial sector was raised by 5.9 per cent.
Accordingly a liter of petrol would be 111 rupees (1 U.S. dollar) while the new diesel price would be 71 rupees (about 64 U. S. cents) per liter. The price hikes came into effect midnight Friday.
This is the third time the fuel prices have been raised in the last two months and was necessitated by high cost of global oil prices, officials added.
Sri Lanka imports all its crude oil needs and is dependent heavily on the market prices.
The government early this month appointed a ministerial committee headed by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake to recommend measures that need to be taken to cushion the impact of fuel costs on the island's cost of living.
The committee was even looking at the option of rationing the use of fuel, officials said.