June 18, Colombo: The People’s Bank has opened a Letter of Credit (LC) for US$ 42.6 million to purchase a shipment of 300,000 barrels of 92 Octane petrol.

Accordingly, 41,000 metric tons of 300,000 barrels of petrol will be imported soon from a new supplier Ministry of Power and Energy said. The requisite LCs had been opened on 16 June and the ship carrying the fuel stock would arrive at the earliest, the Ministry said.

The Minister of Power and Energy stated at a media briefing held on the 16th that the fuel shortage was due to the high demand and hoarding of fuel by the people even though the required fuel is imported every 10 days.