May 31, Colombo: Sri Lanka Government Railways (SLGR) has increased its fares with effect from midnight today by a minimum of 60 per cent to reach a maximum of 150 per cent.

With this increase the minimum railway fare of 5 rupees will be increased to 10 rupees. However, the concessions given for season tickets are expected to continue with discounts.

According to industry sources, SLGR uses nearly 30 million litres of diesel to run its trains and it has to spend an additional 900 million rupees due to the current diesel price hike. The Treasury provides nearly 7.5 billion rupees to the SLGR and the allocation has to be increased up to 8.5 billion rupees with the diesel price hike.

With fuel prices globally rising to unprecedented levels, Asian countries are trying to keep costs down and minimize the burden on the population but find that subsidizing the costs to the people is no longer possible.