Lanka IOC raises diesel prices for the second time

Lanka IOC Ltd, the Sri Lankan unit of Indian Oil Corporation, raised diesel prices for the second time this year to narrow losses amid record-high crude oil costs.

Lanka IOC today increased the price of diesel by 20 rupees (19 US cents) to 100 rupees a litre, said Managing Director K Ramakrishnan in a telephone interview. The Colombo-based company held the price of petrol.

Crude oil rose to a record above $135 a barrel in New York on concern that supplies are inadequate after US stockpiles unexpectedly dropped last week.

Sri Lankan oil companies have been free to set prices since June 2006, although Lanka IOC sells fuel below cost because larger state rival Ceylon Petroleum Corp caps prices to help the government control inflation.

Lanka IOC, which runs a third of the island's gas stations, expects to report a profit in the quarter ended March 31 after hedging oil imports and increasing reserves, Ramakrishnan said last month.

"We might be able to minimize the loss in the April-June quarter and we expect the government to also make revisions to prices,'' Ramakrishnan said today. "If we waited for the government, we would have come to a grinding halt."

Bus fares Increased

Private bus fares will be increased by 27.2 per cent from 27th of May 2008 in the wake of Sunday’s fuel price hike, Private Bus Owners Association President Gamunu Wijeratne said yesterday after he met Transport Minister Dallas Alhaperuma and National Transport Commission officials.

Accordingly the minimum fare will be increased from Rs 6 to Rs 7 while the maximum fare from Rs 32 to Rs 42. But fares on CTB buses have been increased only by 17% considering the hardships faced by the commuters.

A Ministry spokesman said the Transport Minister, NTC officials and Private Bus Owners Association representatives were due to hold a joint news conference today to explain the national policy on bus fares and circumstances which led to the fare hike

He said the NTC is expected to officially announce the new fares on SLTB and private buses today while the revised rail fares are to be announced shortly by Sri Lanka Railways.

Minister Alahapperuma told Daily Mirror the government would further subsidize the public transport sector and thus reduce the burden on the commuters.

“The fare increase of the public transport sector is inevitable but we will do our best to reduce the burden on commuters. The Treasury has agreed to continue subsidizing the transport sector as the government does intend passing the full impact of the fuel increase to the commuters. The government is absorbing 50% of the world market fuel price by permitting the CPC to limit the price increase on a litre of diesel to only Rs. 30. The Transport Ministry meanwhile was able to convince the Treasury of the need to further subsidize the public transport sector,” Minister Alahapperuma said.

He said the Ministry had maded several suggestions to President Mahinda Ranapaksa on how best to offset the burden on the economy following the huge increase of fuel prices in the world market.

“One option is to pay a monthly travel allowance of Rs. 30,000 to public officers entitled to an official vehicle. The rationing of fuel was another option but it has to be carefully thought through before implementing it. The public must be encouraged to use public transport instead of their private vehicles. The traffic in cities annually use up fuel worth some Rs. 15 billion and this is a heavy burden on the economy,” the Minister said.

LTTE bomb explosion - Dehiwala

According to the latest report received from the Kalubowila hospital, 9 civilians were killed including a pregnant mother and 84 more passengers suffered injuries when the LTTE terrorists exploded a bomb inside a highly crowded Colombo-Panadura train around 4.55 p.m yesterday.

Kalubowila hospital sources said that injured 84 civilians were admitted to the hospital following the explosion. Another pregnant mother is also among the victims and now she is being treated in ward 21, hospital sources said. Among the injured, 6 suffered severe injuries are being treated in Intensive Care Unit at Kalubowila hospital.

The director of the Accident Ward in National hospital Colombo, Dr Anil Jasinha, said that 8 victims suffered injuries, 6 females and 2 males, who were transferred from Kalubowila hospital were admitted to the National hospital last evening. "Three females are undergoing treatments in ICU from the time they were admitted and one of them succumbed to her injuries while being treated this morning (May 27)", Dr Jasinha said.

It is believed that the parcel bomb exploded had been placed on the luggage rack in the train, police sources said.

Earlier, LTTE terrorists detonated two bombs in two carriages of a highly crowded train at the same railway station killing more than seventy and wounding over hundreds of innocent civilians in the same manner on 24th July 1996.

LTTE is a ruthless terrorist outfit notorious for crimes against innocent civilians. In its pursuit for a mono ethnic separate homeland for Tamils, the outfit has killed and maimed over tens and innocent children, Tamil and Sinhalese political leaders in indiscriminate bomb attacks. FBI in a recent report called LTTE the most dangerous terrorist outfit in the world