Govt. to allow direct fuel imports for priority sectors under new licensing system

In order to enable priority sectors to directly import fuel under a new licensing system, the Cabinet has green-lighted a proposal to amend the Petroleum Products (Special Provisions) Act, No. 33 of 2002 to make required legal provisions.
The Energy and Power Minister Kanchana Wijesekera on Monday sought the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers to advise the Legal Draftsman to draft a bill to amend the Petroleum Products (Special Provisions) Act, No. 33 of 2002 to make provisions to issue license to identified parties.

The Co-Cabinet Spokesperson and Education Minister Ramesh Pathirana revealed that the government has already identified power generation, fisheries and export-related industries as such selected specific sectors to allow import of required fuel for their operations.

Amidst persistent power cuts and fuel shortages, exporters have been urging the government to allow them to directly import fuel for their operations using their foreign exchange earnings. 

A similar proposal was also earlier made to grant Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to directly import the required fuel for power generation.“Fuel is essential for all economic activities in the country. Therefore, it has been identified that it is appropriate to issue licenses to selected specific sectors of the economy to import and use the fuel they require individually,” the Government Information Department stated.

Under the current legal provisions, only Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and Lanka IOC can import fuel directly.