Fuel prices rise to record high in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has increased its fuel prices from midnight Monday to a record high.

With the latest price hike, the price of Octane 92 petrol rose by 33.1 percent to a record 338 Sri Lankan rupees (1.04 U.S. dollars) a liter, and the price of auto diesel increased by 64.2 percent to 289 rupees.

This is on a par with the prices of Lanka IOC, a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation, which hiked its fuel prices from midnight Sunday.

CPC Chairman Sumith Wijesinghe said last week that they were losing between 800 to 1,000 billion rupees a day due to selling the fuel at a below-market rate.

It was not the first time the CPC increased fuel prices this year and it has introduced fuel rationing on April 15. (1 U.S. dollar equals 326 Sri Lankan rupees).