Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa urged the government on Tuesday to immediately roll back the fuel price hikes introduced during the Middle East war, arguing that the two-week US-Iran ceasefire announced earlier in the day had already pushed global oil prices sharply lower.
Speaking in Parliament, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya leader said the price of a barrel of Brent crude had fallen to around USD 95 following the ceasefire and that there was no longer any basis to hold domestic prices at war-time levels. He called on the government to announce a price reduction by midnight or the following day, rather than wait for the regular monthly pricing formula review.
Premadasa also pressed the government to use the two-week ceasefire window to shore up supply chains for gas, fuel, fertiliser and medicines, warning that the truce may prove fragile and that any disruption could hit households still absorbing April’s cumulative cost-of-living shock.
His demand came hours after the Pakistan-brokered US-Iran ceasefire sent Colombo stocks up 4.21 percent and rupee bonds rallying. Global oil prices fell roughly 16 percent on the news before partially rebounding later in the day after reports of a strike on Iran’s Lavan Island refinery and a renewed halt to tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
SLPP’s Namal Rajapaksa made a similar cross-party demand earlier on Tuesday, placing rare unified pressure on the NPP government to pass through lower crude costs to consumers. Petroleum Minister Kumara Jayakody, who faces a no-confidence motion on April 10 over the coal procurement scandal, has yet to respond to the fuel price demand.
