Sri Lanka railway tariff hike gets cabinet nod

ECONOMYNEXT –  Sri Lanka’s cabinet of ministers had given the approval to hike railway fares to meet the rising costs, the state information office said, as a collapse of a soft-peg raised operating costs steeply.

Sri Lanka is going through the worst  currency crisis in the history of its soft- pegged Central bank.

Due to the ongoing fuel crisis in the country, public transportation has been impacted massively and transportation services continue to decline due to not getting enough fuel to operate the services to the fullest capacity.

The statement said, the department has not changed the passenger transport charges for more than five years and the goods transport and postal transport charges in fourteen years.

“Due to the rapid price hike of fuel experienced recently, the recurrent loss of the Department is on the rise too. Therefore, it has become vital to increase the income earned by the Department to sustain a satisfactory railway service,” the statement said.

Sri Lanka revised the fuel prices several times in the past six months of 2022, and in the last price revision done on June 26, CPC raised the petrol price to 470 rupees a litre by 50 rupees and auto diesel to 460 rupees a litre by 60 rupees.

Petrol Octane 95 was raised by 100 rupees to 550 rupees a litre.

Super diesel was raised by Rs75 to Rs520 per litre.

Prices at both state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and Lanka IOC have been raised by the same proportion. (Colombo/ June 28/2022)