Hon. Eranga Weeraratne - Deputy Minister of Digital Economy

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, the Opposition has sought an Adjournment Debate suggesting the country is in crisis. I must clearly say it is not so. Our speakers have shown this. In 2022, we faced a crisis due to governance failures that depleted forex, domestic stocks, and crashed the Treasury, exacerbated by wrong decisions like money printing that spiked inflation. That is not today’s situation. Today, the world is in turbulence due to Middle East conflict hindering oil transport, production, distribution, with higher global demand pushing up prices. This affects us, but we have adequate forex and rupee liquidity. The issue is prudent management—how much premium we pay and how we conserve stocks to minimize economic impact. Government measures are aimed at exactly that.

¶ 02 Some push a 2022 equivalence narrative. It is false. We observed the emerging shock for several days and have been responding based on evolving conditions that no one can predict with 100% certainty.

¶ 03 Given disruptions to oil supply and transport, we have adopted mechanisms to manage current fuel prudently, including the QR system now on day five and stabilizing. By 12:50 p.m. today, 5,505,732 vehicles were registered in the system. New registrations: 42,898 on March 15; 395,349 on the 17th; 301,463 yesterday; and 302,168 by 12:50 p.m. today—showing strong uptake and resolution of initial bottlenecks.

¶ 04 A technical issue arose where legacy QR allocations were tied to prior owners. From midnight today we allow current owners to input number plate and chassis, and if data matches, the old record is purged and QR reassigned instantly, enabling same-day fueling.

¶ 05 We introduced odd-even fueling days to reduce queues. However, if someone has been unable to obtain a QR yet, stations may dispense fuel irrespective of odd/even today; those who already fueled on their “even” day should wait till their next turn. Registrations per hour have risen from ~33,000 to over 55,000 today, indicating system performance.

¶ 06 We are cracking down on opportunists: fake sites like fuelpass.invitation.online were harvesting plates, chassis, and mobiles. We shut them down, obtained data on perpetrators, and police action is underway. We are also targeting those generating multiple fraudulent QRs to hoard and resell fuel. Their numbers have been given to police for investigation. We will protect livelihoods and ensure fair distribution, not profiteering.

¶ 07 Thank you.