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Projected National Fuel Bill (2026)
Rising fuel costs in USD millions between February and May 2026.
Primary Sources
Ominous signs on economic front - The Island
Share Tweet Monday 18th May, 2026 The government has realised the need for a decisive intervention to curtail the burgeoning import bill, which is a drain on the country’s foreign currency reserves. It has imposed a 50% surcharge on custom duty on vehicle imports for three months. Vehicle prices are bound to increase substantially. Explaining why the government decided to impose a duty surcharge on imported vehicles, Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando has said import expenditure has increased sharply to USD 2 billion over the past two months. Letters of Credit for vehicle imports are also being opened rapidly, and therefore instead of banning vehicle imports, the government decided to impose a duty surcharge to manage the situation, he has stated, requesting that the importation of vehicles for personal use be postponed by three months. It became clear a few months ago that the sheer volume of vehicle imports would pressure foreign currency reserves. The government moved to boost its tax revenue by lifting restrictions on vehicle imports in keeping with IMF conditions, but it apparently did not maintain a balance between higher taxes on imported vehicles and foreign currency reserves. Perhaps, having claimed that it strengthened the economy and built foreign currency reserves, the government did not want to restrict vehicle imports. Oil accounts for about 20% of Sri Lanka’s import bill, and therefore a strategy to curtail the foreign exchange outflow consists in reducing fuel consumption. The West Asia crisis has driven the global oil prices up and left the developing economies struggling. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has recently lamented that the national fuel bill increased steeply from USD 98 million in February to USD 368 in April, and the projected bill for May is USD 522 million. He has stressed the need to reduce fuel consumption. This situation has come about due to global oil price hikes caused by the Iran conflict rather than an increase in the fuel consumption by the public. However, there has been a massive increase in fuel imports for power generation. What the President has left unsaid is that fuel imports have increased because oil-fired power plants have to operate to meet a generation shortfall at Norochcholai, caused by low-quality coal imports. Experts have pointed out that about 800,000 litres of diesel have to be burnt daily to compensate for the Norochcholai generation loss. Strangely, no one h...
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