The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has been allowed to seek the assistance of private commercial banks to obtain the required dollars from state-owned banks to open letters of credit for the purchase of fuel.

 A spokesman for the Ministry of Energy stated that the permission was granted during a discussion held at the Ministry of Finance recently.

Accordingly, in the future, the Petroleum Corporation will be able to assist state-owned banks in opening letters of credit for the purchase of fuel by purchasing dollars from private commercial banks at daily exchange rates, a ministry spokesman said.

A ministry spokesman added that the situation was due to the fact that state banks did not have enough dollars to pay for fuel tankers due to the appreciation of the dollar against the rupee.

In that situation, it has not been possible to release a fuel tanker that arrived in the country on the 14th. According to the Ministry of Energy, the ship, which arrived from Singapore, had 20,000 metric tons of jet fuel and 20,000 metric tons of diesel.

The Ministry of Energy stated that the ship had to pay $ 42.7 million and $ 18,000 per day as delay charges.