July, 11, 2019
The Ministry of Finance announced that fuel prices had been reduced with effect from midnight yesterday.
Accordingly, the price of a litre of Petrol (Octane 92) has been reduced by Rs.2 and the revised price will be Rs.136.The price of a litre of Petrol (Octane 95) has been reduced by Rs.5 and will be sold at Rs.159. A litre of Super Diesel is reduced by Rs.5 and the new price will be Rs.131.
However, the price of auto diesel and Lanka Kerosene remain unchanged.
Issuing a statement yesterday in this regard the Finance Ministry said the fuel prices in the world market have declined and hence the government had taken measures to pass on the benefit to the local consumer.
When revising fuel prices in June, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera stated if the declining trend in the fuel prices in the world market continues measures will be taken to provide the consumer with this advantage.
“At the time of the last fuel revision in June the price of a crude oil barrel was US $74 and this has come down to US $65 now,” the statement added.
“Although the fuel prices went up and down several times since the pricing formula came into effect, the prices of fuel still remain lower than prices observed when the present government came to power.”
"The price of a litre of Petrol (Octane 92) was Rs.150 on January 01, 2015 and today it is been sold for Rs.136. The price of a litre of auto diesel which was sold for Rs.111 at the time is now sold for Rs.104,” the statement further noted.
However, even though it has been mentioned in the statement that in June the price of a crude oil barrel was US $74, but as of June 10, 2019 a barrel of crude oil was sold at US $ 63.37. The last time the price of a crude oil barrel exceeded the US $ 74 was on April 22.
Meanwhile, today (11) the international media reported that oil prices have climbed to a seven-week high on Wednesday.
In that case, is it acceptable to say that the price of a crude oil barrel has come down from $ 74 to $ 65?
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