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Medium-scale businesses face closure

24 May 2022

  • Various shortages blamed by restaurateurs
  • Urge Govt. to get Litro to refill Laugfs cylinders 
BY Dinitha Rathnayake  Sri Lankan medium-scale business owners are forced to shut down their businesses due to various shortages including gas. Speaking to The Morning, Grill Kitchen Founder/Owner Nadin Chathura Ekanayake said that he is unable to run his business anymore due to the shortage of gas. “I urge the Government to refill the yellow coloured Laugfs Gas cylinder by Litro Gas Lanka as an immediate solution for the crisis. As a business, we are unable to operate and soon we might have to close down our business and the families that depend on our business, what will happen to them? They might have to commit suicide if they lose their job.” According to Ekanayake, he was able to manage his business even after the Easter Sunday terror attacks of April 2019, and the Covid-19 pandemic post-2020. “I was able to pay salaries for my employees during the Covid-19 pandemic period and the business was running smoothly. I dragged this business as far as possible. Grill Kitchen is a brand. We always had customers to fill the tables. But in this country, we have reached a point where we cannot do business. So far, somehow, gas has been found.  “However, today, I came to the point where I could not find a single gas cylinder. The restaurant has to close without gas. From tomorrow, a number of families dependent on Grill Kitchen will be left homeless. We did not depend on anyone for three years. We earned and paid off debts and we lived. The Government of this country will not allow us to do that now. What is the Government planning to do by destroying medium-scale businesses?” It is not the US dollar crisis that the gas companies are facing, they are unable to pay their debts and the banks are not allowing them to open letters of credit, he claimed. Meanwhile, Litro Gas Lanka announced on Monday (23) that there will be no distribution of domestic liquefied petroleum gas cylinders (LPG) (12.5 kilo [kg], five kg, 2.3 kg) yesterday (24). The general public was requested not to wait in line for LPG by Litro Gas Lanka.


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