“Sri Lanka has only One Day’s Stock of Petrol”: PM 

NEW DELHI, May 16: Crisis-hit Sri Lanka has run out of petrol and on Monday is left with only one day’s stock of the fuel and is also unable to find dollars to finance essential imports, the new prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Monday in an address to the nation.

“We have run out of petrol… At the moment, we only have petrol stocks for a single day,” Wickremesinghe said, warning his bankrupt country could face more hardships in the coming months. He said the government was also unable to raise dollars to pay for three shipments of oil, with the ships awaiting outside the Colombo harbour for payments before discharging their cargoes.

Sri Lanka is in the throes of its worst-ever economic crisis with its 22 million people enduring severe hardships to secure food, fuel and medicines while facing record inflation and lengthy power blackouts. Wickremesinghe assumed office on Thursday after his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa was forced out after weeks of protests over the government’s handling of the economic crisis turned deadly.

“The next couple of months will be the most difficult ones of our lives,” Wickremesinghe said. “I have no desire to hide the truth and to lie to the public.” However, he urged people to “patiently bear the next couple of months” and vowed he could overcome the crisis. He said the government had also run out of cash to pay the 1.4 million civil servants their salaries in May, and he will turn to money printing as a last resort.

“Against my own wishes, I am compelled to permit printing money in order to pay state-sector employees and to pay for essential goods and services,” he said He also warned that fuel and electricity tariffs will be raised substantially and his government will also sell off its loss-making national carrier to reduce losses.

Sri Lanka has sought an IMF bailout and one of the key demands of the international lender is for Colombo to divest loss-making state enterprises, including Sri Lankan Airlines whose carried-forward losses exceed a billion dollars.

Justifying his own decision to take over as the prime minister amidst strong protests from the public against the ruling family the Rajapaksas, Wickremesinghe said his aim was to save the country from the ongoing economic crisis, and not a person, family or group. “I am undertaking a dangerous challenge… I am wearing shoes with sharp nails that cannot be removed…I am accepting this challenge for our nation. My goal and dedication is not to save an individual, a family, or a party. My objective is to save all the people of this country and the future of our younger generation,” Wickremesinghe said.

He said at present the Sri Lankan economy was extremely precarious and Colombo must obtain USD 75 million within the next couple of days to ease the current queues for essentials.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who has refused to quit, appointed Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister last week and said a young Cabinet under him would introduce key constitutional reforms to curb his powers, amid protests over the nation’s worst economic crisis that ousted his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa who is under protection at a naval base following violent attacks on his aides.

(Manas Dasgupta)