Lanka IOC suspends Sri Lanka’s fuel token system
ECONOMYNEXT – Lanka IOC, a unit of the Indian Oil Corporation, has discontinued a token system introduced for fuel pumping which proved ineffective eight days after it was launched.
“It started off well but we received many complaints on all the fronts, probably because the effectiveness of the system could not be ensured. So we were left with no option but to discontinue it,” Manoj Gupta, MD of Lanka IOC said.
“One has to be flexible and adaptable to the system so it was more of a pain rather than for what it was implemented (sic).”
Gupta is hopeful that the fuel supply would get better as the company expects to receive three shipments in the coming weeks.
One shipment is scheduled to arrive between 13-14, and at the end of July 29-30th and the third ship in mid-august.
Gupta said soon they would be closing a deal for a shipment for the end of August.
Sri Lanka’s Minister for Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera introduced a fuel token system at filling stations on June 27 in a move to cut down fuel queues.
Military personnel were deployed to distribute the tokens to run the system smoothly according to the minister.
However, news footage shows that, over the past few days queues have formed for tokens too.
People in queues said that despite getting a token, they still had to wait for at least three days to get fuel.
Some complained that the sheds ran out of fuel as their numbers were called in.
Minister Wijesekera announced on Sunday July 03 that the country will receive nine fuel ships in July and August. (Colombo/Jul04/2022)
