Minister reveals plans to register vehicles with fuel stations

Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara says that in the near future, a system will be implemented for domestic fuel consumers to register with one Fuel station to manage the distribution of fuel smoothly.

“This can be a little challenging in urban areas but can be done easily in rural areas. Once the registration is done, we will know each user’s monthly fuel consumption and the required fuel which needs to be released” he said addressing a media briefing.

The Minister of Power and Energy further said that sufficient fuel stocks are available and there is no issue in distribution as well. However, he said that the current shortage is mainly due to excess fuel stocks being held in various places in the country.

“We have done an audit based on the fuel stocks arrived in the county since the month of March. It was identified that there are more fuel stocks stored elsewhere in the country, than what’s available in CPC terminals in Muthurajwela, Kolonnawa and our other depots. This is the reality” he said.

The Ministers said that certain businesses registered with the CPC as ‘consumer accounts’ are getting the fuel requirement for 1 month at a time. He further said that it was a mistake to issue fuel like that since currently CPC is only importing fuel stocks enough for 5-6 days at a time.

He further said that around 2000 such consumer accounts have been registered with the CPC and it has now been decided to restrict supply for these businesses and issue more fuel for fuel stations