The Fuel Distributors Association claims with the decision taken by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) to issue fuel for filling stations only for ready cash, has resulted in a three-fold decrease in fuel orders made by the filling stations.
Co-Secretary of the Association Kapila Naotunna said that about 60 stocks of fuel were ordered from a filling station in a month when the facility of payment for fuel orders was provided through cheques. However, after the introduction of the system of paying for fuel only in cash, the ordering of fuel was limited to 20 stocks for a period of one month.
Distributors say that since no filling station can order two stocks of diesel and petrol at the same time for ready cash, all the petrol stations these days order only one stock of either diesel or petrol. Two stocks of diesel and petrol of 6,600 litrEs each, cost Rs. 6 million.
As this is an unaffordable amount, they demand that the previous system of paying for fuel through cheques be re-implemented as soon as possible. Naotunna said that all 1,250 fuel distributers request Minister Kanchana Wijesekara to reverse the decision and facilitate to payment for fuel through cheques.
Due to the limited fuel order, any filling station runs out of stocks within hours, resulting in queues until stocks are replenished.
by Daily News Sri Lanka
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