LPG supply: Litro price revision tomorrow

• 25,000 MT of LPG on order for this month
• Floats tender for 280,000 MT of LPG for 12-month period
• Gas supply queues have now evaporated: Pieris

 By Asiri Fernando

Litro Gas Lanka Ltd., the State-owned Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supplier, will revise its prices from midnight tomorrow (8), The Sunday Morning learns.

According to Litro Chairman Muditha Pieris, the supplier has sent its recommendation to the Treasury for approval and the price change, which will be announced tomorrow evening, will be in effect from midnight on the same day.

Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Pieris said that the price revision would “most likely see a reduction in the price of domestic gas cylinders”.

“The price revision is done using the pricing formula, which was developed in consultation with the Consumer Affairs Authority, the Treasury, and the President’s Office. Based on that formula we will be making the first price revision, effective from Monday (8) midnight,” Pieris said.

“We did have a price formula before, but it was not considered. This is one reason Litro was incurring nearly Rs. 14 billion in losses at the time I took over. But now Litro is making a reasonable profit margin,” Pieris added.

Responding to a question on gas cylinder distribution, Pieris said that Litro Lanka had managed to issue more than 2.87 million 12.5 kg domestic gas cylinders over the past 22 days, adding that the increased output by Litro had caused the long queues for LPG to evaporate. 

When asked if Litro Lanka could sustain the supply of LPG, Pieris said that he was confident that the State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) could maintain the supply, as 25,000 MT of cooking gas had been ordered for August, with another 25,000 MT ordered for September. 

Sri Lankans have endured long queues for LPG for many months, with several elderly customers succumbing to exhaustion while waiting in line to buy refill cylinders. 

Commenting about long-term supply, the Litro Chairman said that the Government had floated a tender for 280,000 MT (+/- 20%) of LPG for the 12-month period starting from 1 November. 

Pieris told The Sunday Morning that the tenders, which would be open for competitive bidding, would be closed by the end of September to facilitate a smooth flow of LPG to Sri Lanka in an uninterrupted manner.

When asked about funding for the LPG imports, Pieris said that Litro Lanka had been paying for the first few weeks and that $ 70 million of funding from the World Bank, which had been promised, was now being used to pay for shipments.  

Attempts to contact the Chairman and senior officials of LAUGFS Gas PLC, the other LPG supplier in the local market, regarding sustaining its supply failed.