Workers of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation are angry over Minister Fowzie’s decision to give authority to the Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC) to fix petroleum prices. They said that the IOC already broke the agreement between the CPC and the IOC and the government has powers to cancel the agreement.

"According to the agreement, at any given time they must have fuel stocks sufficient for a month. However they do not have petrol and kerosene. They request fuel worth Rs. 2,000 billion from the CPC. If the CPC issues fuel to the LIOC we will launch a strike soon," President of the Ceylon Petroleum Common Service Union, Laxman Ananda told The Island yesterday.

He said if the IOC was given permission to fix the price of fuel they distribute, India will have the monopoly of the fuel distribution in Sri Lanka which will ultimately lead to the retrenchment of over 7000 CPC employees.

The government which suspended the fuel subsidy to the Indian Company has instead agreed to give it the authority to fix fuel prices and distribute fuel, and Petroleum Resources Minister A. H. M. Fowzie has submitted a cabinet paper for approval in this connection.

If the government proceeded with its plan, IOC would get the opportunity to distribute fuel at a lower price and filling station owners would purchase fuel at that price. As IOC will not avail itself to purchase fuel from the oil refinery, CPC’s survival would be at stake and under such circumstances the CPC would be forced to close down, Ananda said.