New Delhi: Sri Lanka asked citizens not to queue for gasoline as the country has no dollars to pay for fuel shipments.
“We have a petrol ship in our waters,” Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera told parliament on Wednesday. “We don’t have foreign exchange.”
The minister said Sri Lanka “expects” to release the ship “today or tomorrow”. He elaborated that the nation owed the same supplier $53 million for the first shipment of gasoline.
The island nation is in the worst economic condition in its independent history. Shortages of everything from food to cooking gas have caused Asia’s sharpest inflation – prices have risen by almost 30% – and sparked social unrest and political turmoil.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe – less than a week in the job – said on Monday that the country has only a day’s stockpile of gasoline and that the government will receive dollars in the open market to pay for crude oil and three ships with a furnace. working to do. Oil that is anchored in Sri Lankan waters.
He told parliament on Wednesday that the government was in discussion with the World Bank for part of the $160 million aid to be provided for social welfare to purchase fuel imports.
Wijesekera said Sri Lanka’s fuel requirement for June is estimated at $530 million, and priority is being given to the current supply of petrol for essential services such as ambulances.
He said that at present there is sufficient stock of diesel in the country.