The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (Ceypetco) has reduced the price of both grades of petrol with effect from midnight on Sunday, in a revision that leaves diesel and kerosene untouched.
Petrol 92 Octane falls by Rs. 15 a litre, from Rs. 414 to Rs. 399. Petrol 95 Octane falls by Rs. 20, from Rs. 495 to Rs. 475. Auto Diesel, Super Diesel and kerosene are unchanged.
The new island-wide Ceypetco retail prices are:
- Lanka Petrol 92 Octane — Rs. 399 per litre
- Lanka Petrol 95 Octane — Rs. 475 per litre
- Lanka Auto Diesel — Rs. 382 per litre
- Lanka Super Diesel — Rs. 478 per litre
- Lanka Kerosene — Rs. 285 per litre
The cut that was signalled a month ago
The reduction follows a monthly pricing cycle in which the corporation twice declined to pass on lower global prices. Ceypetco said on July 29 that the benefit of falling world crude and refined fuel prices would be passed to consumers at that month’s revision, without specifying grades or amounts. Two days later it held every price for the whole of August, leaving July’s structure in place and the indicated relief undelivered.
Sunday’s revision delivers that cut, but only at the petrol pump. Diesel — the fuel that carries freight, buses and school transport, and the grade on which the corporation has said it is running a loss per litre — is held at Rs. 382.
At Rs. 399, Petrol 92 is priced below Rs. 400 for the first time since the May 2 revision lifted it to Rs. 410 from Rs. 398. It had climbed further to Rs. 434 at the end-May revision before easing back to Rs. 414.
Sri Lanka revises fuel prices at the end of each month under a formula weighing global oil prices, the exchange rate and import costs. Pump prices have been a recurring political pressure point, with the opposition repeatedly arguing that consumers were not seeing the benefit when world oil prices fell.
None of the three reports said what Lanka IOC would do. The private operator has historically followed Ceypetco’s revisions within a day or two, though it has not always matched every grade.
