The prevailing foreign exchange crisis has made it difficult for SriLankan to fuel their aircfrafts operation SriLankan sources said.
The Sunday Times Newspaper reports that the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation is in talks to obtain a dollar loan from the SFD Fund of Saudi Arabia as a solution to the situation, especially due to the company’s huge losses incurred due to the lack of sufficient dollars to obtain fuel.
Although the Saudi Development Fund has provided financial assistance for social development and infrastructure, the government has requested dollar assistance from that fund to pay SriLankan Airlines’ fuel bills.
Sources say that the government has made long and short term proposals in this regard and has not yet reached a final decision on whether to grant this loan amount or not.
SriLankan Airlines currently has a shortfall of 330 billion rupees in fuel for the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, of which the company has paid only approximately 6 billion US dollars.
But in this situation, the Petroleum Corporation has demanded to pay the balance not in rupees but in dollars and this huge payment has created a challenge for SriLankan Airlines.
The sources said that the focus is on getting the Saudi fund based on that situation.
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