Troubled Oil

State petroleum giant Ceypetco is lobbying Treasury officials to up fuel prices in July and hold it steady for about three months thereafter to allow consumers to absorb the shock.





State petroleum giant Ceypetco is lobbying Treasury officials to up fuel prices in July and hold it steady for about three months thereafter to allow consumers to absorb the shock. Ceypetco has recommended petrol be upped by Rs.



8.00 to Rs. 65.00 a litre, diesel by Rs. 6.00 to Rs. 32.00 a litre and kerosene by Rs. 2.00 to Rs. 27.50 a litre. "We have recommended the increase for a few months, as against increasing in Rs.

2.00 blocks each month," a Ceypetco official said.





Proposed increases based on a monthly pricing formula are still less than required, a Ceypetco official explained, with actual revisions being Rs.

9.00 for petrol, Rs. 10.50 for diesel and Rs. 10.00 for kerosene. The State has been holding prices steady so that drivers will not have to foot the whopping increase, spurred by soaring global rates for crude over the past few months.



The Treasury on paper at least has extended a subsidy to local operators Ceypetco and Lanka IOC, absorbing the difference between current