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Sri Lanka passes law allowing foreign firms in domestic oil retailing business

18 October 2022 23:34 (UTC +04:00)

Sri Lanka's parliament on Tuesday approved legislation allowing foreign firms from oil-producing nations to import and sell fuel on the domestic market, APA reports citing Sputnik.

The legislation -- the Petroleum Products (Special Provisions) Amendment Bill -- ended the duopoly of state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), controlling 80% of the fuel market, and Lanka IOC, a unit of the Indian Oil Corporation.

It will also save crucial foreign exchange reserves that compounded the economic crisis earlier this year.

"Earlier this year people were dying in fuel lines and people were waiting in queues for days, but we didn’t have the foreign exchange to import sufficient amounts of fuel," Kanchana Wijesekera, power and energy minister, told parliament.