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Kanchana blames weather for LPG unloading delay 

19 May 2022

Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera said in Parliament yesterday (18) that there has been a delay in unloading liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stocks due to inclement weather, and therefore requested the public to not queue up to obtain the same today (19).  “On Monday (16), the Finance Ministry and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had paid for two gas ships. They are close to our harbour now, but due to bad weather, we were unable to unload the stocks on Tuesday (17) evening. Thus, we will only be able to unload them today and then take them to the Litro Gas Lanka Ltd. company,” Wijesekera said in Parliament yesterday. Therefore, he noted that production and distribution would only commence today, and thus requested the public to not queue up for LPG. However, Wijesekera cautioned that even if distribution begins today, Litro Gas is capable of releasing only 80,000 cylinders to the market per day.  “There are four million empty Litro Gas Lanka Ltd. cylinders as of now. Thus, it will take about 20 days for supply to return to normal,” he said.  The LPG supply has been severely affected due to the economic crisis in the country. Consumers of privately owned Laugfs Gas PLC have complained that stocks have been scarce all year, while state owned Litro Gas Lanka Ltd. has faced supply issues as well. Consumers stand in long queues for days on end to obtain an LPG cylinder, which has affected families, home-run businesses, small businesses, and larger restaurants.  Some consumers have opted to use kerosene oil for their cooking purposes, especially those from the low-income category.  “There is no issue with the kerosene supply. However, we provide kerosene at a heavily subsidised price of Rs. 87 per litre to the consumer, whereas the Government spends over Rs. 350 to import a litre of kerosene. The kerosene relief is given targeting those especially in the fisheries industry and estate workers. However, we have seen that those in the transport sector, especially bus owners, are accumulating kerosene stocks these days. That is why we have limited the sale of kerosene. We have also instructed Local Government officials to release kerosene stocks only to people from the low-income category to prevent such misuse,” said Wijesekera.  


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