New Delhi: Sri Lanka is likely to run out of diesel by April end as the $500 million line of credit extended by India for fuel purchase is exhausting fast amid unprecedented shortage of foreign reserves.
The island nation is facing the worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948. Sri Lanka has been witnessing massive public outcry and protests for weeks over lengthy power cuts and shortage of gas, food and other basic goods.
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The anger from the opposition and mass protest prompted most Cabinet ministers to quit, and scores of lawmakers to leave President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government.
Fuel shipments to Sri Lanka started arriving in late March because of the urgency in situation even as they were scheduled to start from April 1, according to officials who spoke to the news agency PTI.
Three more Indian shipments are due on April 15, 18 and 23 and the facility would get fully exhausted by then unless the Sri Lankan government sought for a further extension from India, the report quoted the officials. Diesel is widely used for public transport and thermal power generation in the country.
Closure of a few thermal power plants because of diesel shortage has triggered power cuts lasting over 10 hours daily. The country’s only refinery was forced to shut twice in November last year since it was unable to pay for imports.
Rajapaksa on Tuesday revoked the emergency rule ordinance that had gone into effect on April 1 as the government struggled to quell protests amid the nation’s worst economic crisis in decades.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) has warned President Rajapaksa about the shortage of even the most essential medicines in the island nation due to the forex related economic crisis.