Sri Lanka suspends fuel sales for two weeks, sends SOS message to India amid economic crisis

Colombo: As the economic crisis in Sri Lanka worsens, the cash-strapped nation has now announced a two-week halt to all fuel sales except for essential services and appealed to the private sector to work from home as it ran out of supplies. Against this backdrop Sri Lankan high commissioner Milinda Moragoda called upon Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri to discuss the situation.

"High Commissioner Milinda Moragoda discussed urgent energy requirements of Sri Lanka with the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, and Housing and Urban Affairs of India Hardeep Singh Puri when he met the latter in New Delhi today," the country's High Commission in the national capital tweeted.

Moragoda had detailed the current crisis Sri Lanka and its people are facing due to lack of fuel and had urged for a possibility of securing petrol and diesel supplies that are required by Sri Lanka at present on an urgent basis. The bankrupted south Asian island nation, with hardly any dollar reserves, was depending on India's $500 million line of credit to purchase petroleum products since February and the final shipment with 40,000 MT of diesel arrived in Colombo on June 16.

Sri Lanka ran out of petrol and diesel (for the most part) on Saturday after several expected shipments were delayed indefinitely. Sri Lanka is facing a serious shortage of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports, including food, fuel and medicines and is appealing for international handouts. Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said oil cargoes that were due last week did not turn up while those scheduled to arrive next week will also not reach Sri Lanka due to "banking" reasons.

"From midnight today, no fuel will be sold except for essential services like the health sector, because we want to conserve the little reserves we have," government spokesman Bandula Gunawardana said today. The new rules will be in effect till July 10.

All those not involved in essential services have been requested to work from home as the government urges people to support attempts to limit the consumption of fuel in the country. All schools in capital and other main cities are to be closed until July 10 while long distances bus services are also to be cancelled from midnight.