Private fuel tanker operators will continue deliveries after the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation agreed on Thursday evening to the revised transport commission they had demanded, removing the threat of a nationwide distribution halt that was due to begin on Friday.
The Ceylon Petroleum Private Tanker Owners Association (CPPTOA) took the decision after talks that evening with the CPC Chairman, two professors from the University of Moratuwa and association representatives, Chairman A.M.H. Adhikari said. The CPC agreed to provide the commission rates the operators had sought, the Daily Mirror reported.
The association had been seeking a revision of the fuel transport formula that would give tanker owners a commission of at least 20%.
A dispute more than a year old
Adhikari said the CPPTOA first requested a revision of transportation charges in 2025, and that discussions were held on introducing revised rates from January 2026. Those rates were never implemented despite several rounds of talks with the relevant authorities.
He said recent fuel price increases had sharply raised the operating costs of private bowsers, with the prices of spare parts, tyres, tubes and vehicle servicing all rising.
This continues the warning LankaNewz reported on September 28, when the association said it would withdraw from distribution unless the formula was revised — and when the Friday deadline in the Daily Mirror’s copy was rendered ambiguously as “Friday (25)”. Thursday’s agreement places that deadline at October 2, the day the talks concluded.
The morning the dispute “did not exist”
The resolution came at the end of a day in which the two sides described the situation in markedly different terms.
At 12:18 pm, the Daily Mirror reported Adhikari warning that the distribution network “could face a major disruption from tomorrow”, and that the day’s talks would be decisive in determining whether private operators continued to carry fuel. He said the CPC Chairman had assured the association a solution would follow those discussions.
Twenty minutes later, at 12:38 pm, the paper carried CPC Chairman D.J. Rajakaruna saying there had been no major issues with fuel distribution or transportation. He said the University of Moratuwa was still working on the commission formula and expressed confidence the matter could be resolved without difficulty.
Rajakaruna attributed the fuel queues reported in several parts of the country not to distribution problems but to some private companies limiting their supplies. He said 62 locations had been identified where shortages were reported, all of them areas served only by privately operated filling stations, and that the companies concerned had been asked to prioritise uninterrupted supply to those locations.
Both accounts were published within half an hour of each other. By 7:34 pm the commission had been agreed.
One number to hold on to
Disputes between Sri Lanka’s private bowser operators and the CPC over haulage rates recur, and the headlines they produce are close to interchangeable — earlier rounds involved a differently constituted association, a demand for a 60% increase against 30% granted, and a separate 25% haulage claim. The discriminators for this round are the 20% commission, the University of Moratuwa formula, and the lapsed January 2026 implementation date. The settled figure should not be read back onto earlier disputes.
Not reported
Neither account states what commission rate the CPC actually granted beyond meeting the “at least 20%” demand, when the revised formula takes effect, whether it is backdated, or what it will cost the corporation. Rajakaruna’s 62 shortage locations are not identified, and no outlet has reported whether the private companies he named as limiting supplies have responded.
All three filings above are from the Daily Mirror. No other verified newsroom LankaNewz tracks had published its own account of Thursday’s agreement at the time of writing — Hiru News carried nothing on it, and the story did not appear on EconomyNext, NewsFirst, the Island, Daily FT or news.lk. The sequence is therefore well documented but single-newsroom.
