“The government is making huge profits through fuel. But they deduct money from salaries of government servants, saying that they don’t have enough money. On the other hand, they allocate 31,000 million rupees to build highways”, Propaganda Secretary of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Vijitha Herath stated in a press conference held earlier today.
“Compared to the prices in January this year, the price of a crude oil barrel in the open market in the month of May has gone down by 60% percent. This relief must be given immediately to the public. A litre of Diesel is priced at Rs. 104, but it could be sold at Rs. 42 in the current times. A litre of petrol can be sold at Rs.55, instead of the current price at Rs. 137. A litre of Kerosene can be reduced from Rs. 70 to Rs. 28. The Indian IOC company was making huge profits because they didn’t reduce the prices. Then the government imposed a tax, because we kept vehemently criticising such practice. So the government cannot say that they don’t have money. The government says that they spent Rs. 25,720 million in order to provide the Rs. 5,000 allowance to the needy. But they don’t say anything about what extra they’ve earned due to the extreme reduction of crude oil prices. We challenge Minister Bandula Gunawardena to reveal the truth to the public about these profits they’ve made. No levies or taxes on fuel have been reduced. Minister Bandula Gunawardena, who said the government makes an excess of 300,000 million rupees in earnings, has to reveal these details to the public.” he said.