COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will suffer no more power cuts after Mar 5, the president's office said in a statement on Wednesday (Mar 1), following days of outages caused by a lack of funds to buy enough fuel to fire power plants.
The statement did not spell out how the South Asian country would secure fuel supplies to keep the power on from Saturday. Shortages have also led to long lines at petrol stations over the past month.
"There will be no power cuts from Mar 5. The distribution of fuel to all fuel stations across the country will be normalised from tomorrow," the statement by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's office said.
Sri Lanka currently needs about US$500 million a month to source diesel and gasoline, but resorted to power cuts last week as it scrambled to secure US$31 million for a 3,700-million-tonne fuel shipment.
A spokesperson for the federal power ministry did not immediately respond to emails and calls on how the government planned to ensure supplies to fuel power plants.
Sri Lanka's central bank has stopped releasing funds to pay for fuel shipments, two senior energy ministry sources said.
Nearly a third of Sri Lanka's electricity is generated by oil-fired power plants and a similar amount comes from coal and hydro power, according to the state-run Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB).
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/sri-lanka-president-says-no-more-power-cuts-after-mar-5-2533296
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