The CPC in a statement yesterday said that the price of crude oil had increased to US $ 98.50 per barrel on June 8 from US $ 95.99 on June 6. The statement said that a price fluctuation was also seen on June 5 as well when the price of a barrel soared to US $ 101.61 from the previous day’s price of $ 98.50. “Therefore we can see that oil prices are fluctuating daily in the global market,” the CPC source said. However, he said that no decision had been taken to refuse concessions offered to certain segments of society whenever the oil prices went down in the global market.

The CPC further said concessions had already been given to both the consumers and the industrial sector.

Accordingly a concession of Rs 6.13 per litre of diesel and a concession of Rs 9.24 per litre of Kerosene had been given to them. In addition it was pointed out that the CPC had spent Rs 17.97 billion in order to supply fuel for power to the Ceylon Electricity Board. Therefore a litre of 1500 variety furnace oil was being supplied at Rs 40.54 while the 3500 variety Lanka Furnace Oil was supplied at Rs 34.16 per litre, it was revealed. In addition, the low sulfur variety of kerosene was also supplied at Rs. 12.70 a litre and the low sulfur diesel was being supplied at Rs 14.51.

The CPC maintains that it had not increased the price of fuel as soon as the global prices went up. It also said it had lost only Rs 55.5 million from the importation of inferior quality fuel while it had received a payment of US cents 25 per litre of inferior quality aviation fuel that was imported recently, from the supplier.

Source: Daily Mirror - Sri Lanka