Sacked Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila said that people are suffering in queues today because of a man-made crisis.  

He said people wouldn’t have suffered in queues now if the government had restricted the import of non-essential items last year as they demanded.  

He said Sri Lanka has spent US $20.6 billion for imports in 2021 and only US $4.6 billion has been spent for petroleum, LPG, coal and medicine.