Sri Lanka will slash the price of petrol by 11.5 percent with effect from Tuesday midnight, the government said, ahead of a presidential election scheduled on January 26. "The price of a litre of petrol will be reduced by 15 rupees effective midnight today," the government's official website www.news.lk said quoting the state oil firm.
"This reduction will greatly benefit the transport sector." Accordingly, the price of a litre of petrol will be 115 rupees ($1.01), while diesel will be maintained at 73 rupees ($0.638) from Tuesday midnight. Soon after the government announcement, the only private oil firm, Lanka IOC, a 75 percent subsidiary of the Indian Oil Corporation, said it will also reduce in par with the revised state petrol price.
"We have also decided to reduce the price to the same level," K.R. Suresh Kumar, the managing director of the company, told Reuters. However, he declined to comment on whether reduced prices will have an impact on the company's profitability as in the past he had complained of high taxes by the government.