The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake
Bimal Rathnayake stated that court determinations on fuel dealer commissions must be respected and that disregarding them would amount to contempt. He argued that commissions should be calculated on the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation’s actual cost, not on tax-inclusive retail prices, describing the previous method as a longstanding error already recognized by CPC and former Ministers. He said the Government would engage with dealers and take legal or administrative steps if needed, while assuring that there was no fuel shortage and distribution was continuing.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Please allow me to continue. The matter was before the court, which has provided determinations. Disregarding those would be contempt. Let me explain simply. When we import fuel, there are costs to bring it to port, refine, and distribute; CPC also has profit which is added to cost. The commission to dealers must be calculated on CPC’s cost—not on taxes added later for fiscal purposes such as education, health, and to repay Treasury debts. For years, however, commissions were calculated on the tax-included final price, which is wrong. CPC and former Ministers recognized this and moved to correct it years ago. It is a fundamental error to compute commissions on taxes.
¶ 02 Therefore, the present decision’s essence is: do not compute dealer commissions on Government taxes. That benefits industry and the public. Just as you welcomed PUCSL-led electricity tariff reductions, why not welcome this? We will engage with dealers and, if necessary, proceed legally and administratively. There is no fuel shortage; distribution is ongoing. The Government’s position is firm.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Saturday, 1 March 2025 ·No. 1741955797040395 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Bimal Rathnayake. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 1 March 2025. No. 1741955797040395. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/225