There are rumors circulating these days that fuel prices will go up. Due to this, long queues of vehicles were created in almost every city including Colombo yesterday (14th) to buy fuel.

The queues were also near petrol stations of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (Cipetco) and the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

The government is preparing to draft a fuel price formula and bring in legislation to increase or decrease it by a fixed number per month without increasing fuel prices from time to time. It is to be presented to the Cabinet.

At present the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (Ceypetco) is losing Rs. 50 per liter of diesel and Rs. 16 per liter of petrol, therefore, fuel prices have to be increased, Chairman Sumith Wijesinghe said.