Energy and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera told reporters: “We are having a hard time finding suppliers. They don’t want to accept letters of credit from our banks. There are more than 700 million dollars in overdue payments.”
Over the past two months, Sri Lanka has mainly received fuel through India’s $500 million line of credit, which expires in mid-June. A gasoline shipment scheduled for last Thursday has failed to arrive and no new shipments have been scheduled, Wijesekera said.
“We have about 9,000 tons of diesel and 6,000 tons of gasoline left. We’re doing everything we can to get new stockpiles, but we don’t know when.”
However, Sri Lanka also implemented a 12%-22% increase in fuel prices in the early hours of Sunday. The price increase in May pushed inflation to 45.3%, the highest level since 2015.
People have lined up for miles outside the pumps, finding it difficult to buy fuel as the government will focus on releasing the remaining stockpiles for public transport, electricity generation and services, Wijesekera said. medical service.
The military, which has been deployed at fuel stations to quell the unrest, will now issue cards to those waiting, sometimes for days, he said, adding that ports and airports flight will be provided with fuel rations.
Separately, the government on Sunday asked about a million civil servants to work from home until further notice.
A delegation from the US Treasury and State Departments arrived in Colombo for a three-day visit on Sunday to assess the situation. A team from the International Monetary Fund was in Sri Lanka to negotiate a possible bailout of $3 billion.
