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Three new companies allowed to sell fuel for lower prices

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The government has decided to allow the three foreign companies entering the retail fuel market in Sri Lanka to sell fuel below the approved price of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC).

A senior official of the Power and Energy Ministry said the contracts with the three companies will be signed by the end of this month and the companies will launch operations within a month after the contracts are signed.

Accordingly, China’s Sinopec, Australia’s United Petroleum and Shell Company together with RM Parks Inc of the US have been approved to enter the retail fuel market in Sri Lanka.

Once the three companies are allowed to sell fuel at less than the fixed price, the senior official said the demand for CPC fuel will decrease.

At present, the government spends an average of US$ 450 million per month on fuel imports and the ministry hopes that each of the three companies will bring US$ 120 million worth of fuel to Sri Lanka per month, reducing the government’s expenditure on fuel.

The terms of the agreements with new companies include that they must refrain from using local banks to find US Dollars needed to import fuel and that the profits earned can only be taken out of the country after one year.

The Power and Energy Ministry has estimated that the three companies will import US$ 2.2 billion worth of fuel per year.

The agreement will be signed for 20 years and the companies must pay US$ 2 million annually as renewal fees.

Even after 20 years, the companies can continue to operate based on the agreements made through negotiations. 

Sources said the companies will pay an amount as storage fees and the government will receive a certain percentage from a liter as revenue.

Under the agreements, the companies have also been given the opportunity to sell high-end products used in luxury vehicles.  

(Lankadeepa)

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Litro slashes gas cylinder prices

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Litro Gas Lanka, one of the country’s two leading suppliers of domestic Liquefied Petroleum (LP) gas, has decided to slash the prices of its products.

The price reduction will be effective from midnight tomorrow (June 04), according to Litro chairman and CEO Muditha Peiris.

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Three state bank employees arrested for stealing pawned gold jewellery

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The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested three employees of a state bank in Oddamavadi for stealing pawned gold jewellery to the tune of LKR 20 million.

According to the police, among the arrestees are the deputy manager, operations manager and the service assistant of the said state bank.

The trio is accused of stealing pawned 873g of gold jewellery from the safety-deposit box of the state bank.

The CID team had initiated probes into the matter after receiving a complaint about several pieces of gold jewellery that had gone missing from the depository of the bank.

An individual, upon visiting the bank to retrieve the gold jewellery he had pawned in November last year to obtain a loan, had learned that the items were, in fact, missing. After conducting an inspection, the bank employees realized that 13 packets of gold jewellery have been disappeared from the depository.

The bank’s management has suspended the duties of the deputy manager over the incident.

During the interrogations, he had confessed that two other female employees – an operations manager and a service assistant – too were complicit in the theft. They were later placed under arrest by the CID investigators.

They had used the depository keys which were in their possession to steal the gold jewellery on three occasions.

After stealing 13 packets of gold jewellery, the trio had sold them to gold jewellery shops in the area for LKR 13.7 million out of which LKR 5.7 million was retained by the deputy manager to settle a loan. The operations manager, meanwhile, held on to LKR 5 million, which she deposited in a bank for her daughter. The service assistant had purchased a three-wheeler and a piece of land from the LKR 3 million she received.

The trio was remanded until June 16 after being produced before the Valachchenai Magistrate’s Court on Friday (June 02).

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3 sluice gates of Kukule Ganga reservoir opened

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Three of the four sluice gates of Kukule Ganga reservoir were opened this evening (June 02) as heavy rains were experienced in the catchment areas.

The authorities have advised the people living in low-lying areas of the Kukule Ganga reservoir to be on alert of possible floods.

It is reported that the water levels of the reservoir have increased at an alarming rate after the downpours in the water catchment areas.

Meanwhile, the Irrigation Department issued an ‘Amber’ flood warning for the upper catchment areas of Kuda Ganga sub-basin of Kalu River after heavy rainfall was received.

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