Sri Lanka’s transport sector responded in two directions to Friday night’s CPC fuel price revision on Sunday, with private bus operators saying they would absorb the diesel increase while three-wheeler drivers called for an immediate fare hike and a higher fuel quota.
Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association (LPBOA) Chairman Gemunu Wijeratne told reporters that no bus fare revision would follow the latest hike — which raised auto-diesel by Rs. 10 per litre to Rs. 392 — because operators do not have the legal provision to seek an interim adjustment. He said short-distance services were already losing about Rs. 500 per day and long-distance routes around Rs. 1,500 daily, and that the next scheduled annual fare revision was due to take effect on July 1.
Wijeratne also raised concerns about fuel quality, saying operators had complained of higher fuel consumption that suggested a decline in standards. He proposed that fuel testing be conducted in Singapore in the future rather than rely solely on Ceylon Petroleum Corporation laboratories, whose results he said had not been satisfactory.
The National Joint Three-Wheeler Drivers and Industrial Workers’ Association (NJTWDIWA) took the opposite position. Secretary L. Rohana Perera said the Rs. 12 increase in 92-octane petrol — to Rs. 410 a litre — made a fare revision necessary, and that the association was also seeking a higher allocation under the three-wheeler fuel quota.
Restaurant owners landed a third position. All Ceylon Restaurant Owners Association Chairman Harshana Rukshan said the Rs. 12-to-Rs. 15 fuel adjustment was too small to justify a food-price increase and urged the Consumer Affairs Authority to act against establishments that raise rates regardless. Rukshan noted egg prices have fallen from around Rs. 42 to about Rs. 26 and chicken from Rs. 1,450 to between Rs. 1,250 and Rs. 1,350 a kilogram, leaving no market basis for a hike. Fried rice and kottu prices were last raised by Rs. 30 from March 31 after the April 1 electricity tariff revision, and tea prices by Rs. 5 last month — both adjustments the association says will hold for now. Rukshan added that any future gas-price increase would force a fresh review.
Bus fares were last raised by 12.19 percent in March following an earlier diesel adjustment. The May 2 hike was the first under the weekly automatic fuel-pricing formula approved by Cabinet last month, with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake warning publicly two days earlier that further small-scale price increases may be necessary as global crude costs continued to climb.
