The Hon. Kumara Jayakody - Minister of Energy

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, I am truly disappointed about this. Members of the Opposition come to the House at various times, and then they are absent. This morning I explained at length how we will develop renewable energy, under which steps we will operate, etc. Although our policy is to generate 2,000 MW from renewable energy within five years, I explained how we will do that within two years, what the projects are, and in which regions they will be implemented. However, as our Hon. Member said, it seems some have not even watched it on TV. So they come again and ask the same questions, wasting the time of the public and of Parliament.

¶ 02 On one side, they say not to reduce renewable energy tariffs; on the other side, they say Sri Lanka has the highest electricity bill in Asia and ask us to reduce electricity bills. I would like to understand the logic and mathematics behind those arguments from those Hon. Members. From the outset, they spoke without a proper foundation. There were not many substantial questions raised that warranted answers. Since I had at least some time in the morning to speak about fuel, I was hoping to address that as well.

¶ 03 They asked about reducing fuel prices. In 2024, the Government made the largest reductions in fuel prices. We reduced Octane 92 petrol from Rs. 371 to Rs. 309 per litre, a reduction of Rs. 62. We reduced Octane 95 petrol from Rs. 464 to Rs. 371. We reduced Auto Diesel from Rs. 363 to Rs. 286 per litre, a reduction of Rs. 80. We reduced Super Diesel from Rs. 475 to Rs. 313 per litre, a reduction of Rs. 162. We reduced Kerosene from Rs. 262 to Rs. 183 per litre, a reduction of Rs. 79. We have indeed reduced prices. It has been three months and some days since we assumed office. We have a five-year mandate.