The Container Transport Owners’ Association (CTOA) has announced a five-per-cent increase in container transport charges with effect from today, June 1, association Chairman Sanath Manjula said at a media briefing in Colombo.
Manjula said the revised rates would come into force immediately and applied to all container transportation services. The increase is the trucking sector’s direct pass-through of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation’s midnight revision of fuel prices on 30 May, which raised the price of Auto Diesel by Rs. 15 to Rs. 407 per litre and Super Diesel by Rs. 20 to Rs. 478 per litre. Petrol 92 Octane was hiked by Rs. 24 to Rs. 434 and Petrol 95 Octane by Rs. 25 to Rs. 495.
Container haulage is the second piece of the logistics chain to move on price after the latest CPC revision, following the private bus sector’s renewed push for a five-per-cent interim fare hike, which the National Transport Commission has so far refused. CPC Chairman D.J. Rajakaruna on the same day disclosed that the corporation was losing Rs. 129 on every litre of diesel sold and warned that the Rs. 57 billion the government has set aside in fuel subsidies will be exhausted by the end of June.
