Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC) is seeking a revision of retail fuel prices, with Managing Director K. Raghu saying local pump prices are below even the minimum international market rate, the Daily Mirror reported on Monday.
Raghu said LIOC buys from Singapore and India at the most competitive prices available, but that the retail selling price does not recover procurement costs.
The benchmark argument
His central claim is a comparison against Mean of Platts Singapore (MOPS), the regional benchmark for refined products. Raghu said international diesel was trading at about US$172–173 a barrel, while Sri Lanka’s retail diesel price was equivalent to an international price of roughly US$125 a barrel.
“There is no way anybody can procure at a better price,” he said, noting that any importer must pay at least the Singapore market price plus freight. He put prevailing crude at about US$105, petrol around US$145 and diesel around US$170.
Two figures that do not reconcile
Raghu put LIOC’s loss at about Rs. 140 per litre of diesel on figures up to September 26. The Daily Mirror also reported him giving LIOC’s procurement cost as “around Rs. 136 per litre” and describing it as the lowest among the three foreign operators — LIOC, RM Parks and Sinopec.
Those two numbers cannot both describe the same litre: a Rs. 140 loss against a Rs. 136 purchase cost would imply a negative retail price. Every other figure Raghu gave was quoted per barrel rather than per litre. LankaNewz has reproduced both as published rather than reconciling them.
The wider ask
Raghu said the three foreign entrants have taken about 35% of the market and reduced the burden on the Treasury, absorbing losses even during the subsidised period. He called for either a retail price revision or a cost-plus mechanism under which prices track actual import and distribution costs.
The reported loss has narrowed through the month — private distributors cited Rs. 170 a litre on 13 September and up to Rs. 163 on 21 September. The appeal comes a day after the President announced a Rs. 41 billion fuel subsidy for the next three months.
