By Rathindra Kuruwita
The national fuel consumption had dropped by 50 percent towards the latter part of 2022, compared to the first few months of the year, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) said.
The CPC said that in the first few months of 2022, the daily petrol and diesel consumption had increased. The daily fuel consumption averaged 5,500 tonnes from December 2021 and February 2022.
However, this has been reduced by half, the CPC said,
The economic crisis which had led to a reduction in consumption, the introduction of fuel rationing and the end of hoarding of fuel had led to the decline in demand, the Corporation said.
Fuel is one of Sri Lanka’s most costly imports, 3.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2021.
Sri Lanka spent 1.4 billion dollars for fuel between January and March 2022, an increase of 45 percent on a year-on-year basis.