Former Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera has refuted recent claims by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) regarding fuel price revision, stating that according to the fuel price formula, the CPC can decide on the monthly pricing independent of other operators.
Taking to ‘X’, Kanchana Wijesekera said the CPC’ss fuel pricing has nothing to do with any other competitors’ or operators’ pricing, adding that the CPC is also another operator and not the regulator of the industry.
“The pricing formula was implemented for the CPC to be cost-reflective. The CPC can decide on their monthly pricing independently of others, according to the formula. The refinery gains and losses have to be reflected in the pricing formula as long as it’s under the CPC management,” he said.
The former Power and Energy Minister revealed that the previous government did not enter into any agreement with any other operator to compensate for losses they made on their sales or pricing.
“The Government is only liable to pay any compensation from the Treasury to the operators including the CPC, if a fuel subsidy is approved by the Government and granted to the consumers,” he added.
Kanchana Wijesekera’s comments come in response to CPC Chairman D.J. Rajakaruna’s recent claims that the CPC was unable to make independent decisions on price revisions due to the agreements signed with other companies related to the fuel supply process.
Responding to concerns on the recent fuel price revision, Rajakaruna said that the CPC was unable to change the price the way it wanted due to these agreements.
He also pointed out that according to the current agreements, if the other companies suffer a loss, and if their expenses are higher than the current price of the formula, the government is bound to pay them the loss.
“The Energy Ministry and the Finance Ministry intervened and decided a price according to the price formula. That is how the price for this month was determined. We would have been able to shuffle the reduction of prices between various fuels if there was no involvement of other companies and we could make independent decisions. It is because of this issue that we haven’t been able to change the price the way we want,” he added, addressing the media yesterday. (Newswire)
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