Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said that the last Indian-aided oil tanker will arrive on the 16th and next supplies would be challenging as the prevailing deficit of foreign currency crisis. He was speaking at a media briefing convened by the Ministry of Power and Energy yesterday (10).
The Minister pointed out that it would be extremely difficult to find money to get the required fuel for the next three months and that money would have to be printed to obtain the required dollars.
The Minister said that although the Governor of the Central Bank had set aside a dollar for fuel, there was a shortage of rupees to buy dollars.
The Minister said that the only alternative now was to print money, adding that the Governor and the Secretary did not like the option of printing money.
The Minister said that the challenge now is to find around US $ 160 million to pay for the four fuel ships to arrive in the country in the coming weeks , adding that the US $ 530 million requirement could not be managed with the country’s remaining reserves.
The Minister further said that a crude oil shipment could not be released for a period of 20 days without being able to issue a letter of credit for $ 30 million.
In this context, the Minister said that in the future, the provision of fuel will be based on a ration system with priority given to public transport services and industries.
