A proposal has been made to get the Cabinet approval to write off an excess amount Rs. 300,882,260.78 due to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) from the filling station owners as bad debt, it is learnt.

The trade union representatives alleged that most of the filling station owners are friends and relatives of politicians, and that they are taking advantage of these connections.

The total amount owed to the CPC from the fuel distributors is over Rs.16 billion and Rs.300 million has been proposed to be cut off as the first stage.

The Aruna newspaper reported that the proposal is to be forwarded to the Cabinet this week.

This amount is estimated as the amount to be owed up to March 16, 2022.

It is estimated that this amount should be paid to the CPC under fuel price stabilisation which is the basis for calculating the discount amount to the filling station owners keeping up with fuel price fluctuations.

It is said that the recommendation to write off the amount owed as bad debt has been made based on the decision taken by the Board of Directors that the CPC cannot hand over filling stations with unpaid debt, to foreign investors.

Meanwhile, it was reported that the majority of the Deputy General Managers of the Board of Directors have expressed their disapproval of this decision.

A senior officer of the CPC revealed that only the Chairman, Deputy General Manager (marketing) and Marketing Managers have agreed to this decision.

The senior official also said that the ministry secretary also objected to the decision when there was an audit inquiry and a court case ongoing with regard to writing off the debt.

It was reported that this is being done as a preliminary stage measure to write off the amount to be charged from the filling stations when handing them over to Sinopec in China.

Although the distributors received high profits during the oil price hikes, it has been proposed to write off this amount considering the losses they incurred when oil prices were reduced.

More profits for Sinopec filling station owners

Meanwhile, it was reported that the Sinopec is giving a profit of Rs.6 per liter of petrol to the filling station owners while issuing fuel to the consumers Rs.3 less than normal prices.