Substandard cooking gas released to market – Tissa

The UNP yesterday warned LP gas consumers in the country of the risk they would face due to the government importing a substandard consignment of 1,116 MT of gas for distribution through Litro Gas Company.The rest of the LP gas consignment, amounting to 2,800 MT, that arrived in the country recently had been bought by the private company, Laugfs.


UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake, addressing a media briefing at Rajagiriya, claimed that the government’s secret hand in the oil and gas Mafia had been exposed and asked whose pocket the government was likely to fill with that dirty money earned by putting a majority of consumers in jeopardy.

The UNP General Secretary accused the government of not caring for public safety when importing substandard gas. "LP gas users are mainly urban consumers who are employed," he said. "Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) supplied substandard petrol in 2011 on the government’s request to help overcome a scarcity that would have arisen in the country due to the CPC’s failure to replenish stocks" MP Attanayake alleged.

"But the government blamed the company for supplying substandard fuel to the country when the company said that they had low quality product at the time and did not suit the standard that the government wanted. However, the then Minister of Petroleum Susil Premajantha said in Parliament that the company was blacklisted for supplying a low quality shipment of oil and therefore it would be prosecuted and fined. What really happened was that the same company was again blacklisted for supplying substandard diesel two weeks ago. That the government is lying is obvious" he said.

According to ENOC, they had paid a small fine after the government had paid for the entire substandard shipment in 2011 and then had it again registered as a supplier of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC).