• NFP quota, QR code system to come online this week
• Priority supply of fuel for public transport, essential services
• 30% increase in fuel consumption in Q1 of 2022
• Govt. seeks new LOC for fuel from India
• SL Ambassador meets Russian Energy Minister

By Asiri Fernando The Government is unable to raise the approximately $ 600 million needed to procure fuel for each month and plans to reduce fuel imports, with an announcement yesterday (16) of introducing a fuel quota system. According to Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) and the Treasury have informed the Power and Energy Ministry that Sri Lanka can no longer source the $ 600 million needed to import fuel per month. Wijesekera told The Sunday Morning that the CBSL has advised the Government that only around $ 150-200 million in State funds would be available per month to import fuel needed for transportation, industry, and power generation. “The requirement of $ 600 million cannot be sustained until we come out of the economic crisis. I can’t give a timeframe on the number of months before we can come out of it. We can relax the limitations imposed only once the Central Bank tells us that it can provide more dollars; until then we will have to limit the amount of fuel that is being distributed and consumed. We have been given a rough figure of between $ 150-200 million per month for the next four months and that is what we have to work with,” Wijesekera said, responding to a question by The Sunday Morning. He stated that fuel consignments for the month of August had been ordered. The Energy Ministry, in partnership with the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited (CPSTL), Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC), and other stakeholders, yesterday (16) introduced a ‘National Fuel Pass’ (NFP) online registration system to provide each vehicle owner with a unique QR code which will act as their pass to obtain a Government-sanctioned fuel quota for one vehicle per week. According to Wijesekera, the NFP allows a vehicle owner to register only one vehicle and will need to provide information to authenticate their identity, vehicle registration, and the vehicle’s chassis number. Once the information provided is cross checked with the details in the Motor Vehicle Traffic Department’s database, each NFP will be issued a unique QR code which will need to be verified at a fuel station to obtain the weekly quota of fuel.  Wijesekera said that the system was likely to have some teething problems at the start and asked the public to remove vehicles which had been in queues near fuel stations for days, as the new system would come into effect between Wednesday and Thursday (20/21) of this week. When asked, the Energy Minister said that the Government would continue to supply the full requirement of fuel needed to run trains and buses for public transport and stressed that fuel for essential services – including health, agriculture, industry, and tourism – would also be supplied.  He said that corporations which operate a number of vehicles could register those vehicles under company officials’ names, accepting that such an arrangement would cause a range of issues. He said that the NFP would be updated as the process evolves. Wijesekera, who has come under strong criticism due to the Government’s failure to ensure adequate fuel distribution in the past, urged the public to reduce personal fuel consumption and emphasised the need for more to utilise public transport.  He also called on the public to not support the thriving fuel black market.  Wijesekera said in comparison to 2019 and 2020, the months of January, February, and March 2022 had seen a 30% increase in fuel consumption. While some of the fuel has been used for power generation, the Energy Minister blamed people who had been hoarding fuel and the black market for the increase in consumption. He urged the public to report such activity. Responding to a question, the Minister stated that Sri Lanka had exhausted a $ 700 million Line of Credit (LOC) for fuel from India and that the Government had sought a new LOC for fuel from the neighbouring country. “We have also reached out to many friendly countries. Last week the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Moscow met with the Russian Energy Minister and discussed our requirements with him. We look forward to favourable assistance from our friends, ” Wijesekera noted. NFP website crashes The website set up for motorists to register to obtain their fuel quota QR code crashed last evening (16). The site www.fuel.gov.lk was launched yesterday by the Ministry of Energy and the ICTA to enable an online registry to supply fuel.  A notice on the website stated: “fuel.gov.lk is temporarily offline. The public will be notified once operations resume. We regret any inconvenience caused.” Many took to social media to express their frustration at the registration process.  When asked if the information collected by the website for registration was safe and held in a secure way, a senior official at the ICTA said the data was being stored with the agency and there was no new data collected as the information provided for registration already existed with Registration of Motor Vehicles (RMV) for cross reference.