ECONOMYNEXT – The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka set up as a multi-sector regulator is ready to regulate liquefied petroleum gas, if the necessary legislation is passed, Chairman Janaka Ratnayake has said.
“The LPG Gas Standard, developed under the supervision of the Sri Lanka Standards Institution, can be implemented immediately to ensure the protection of consumers of LPG,” Janaka Ratnayake, Chairman of Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka said in a statement.
“However, the PUCSL does not have the legal powers to enforce the standard.”
The comments came after a series of fires from leaking LPG cylinders. Concerns have been raised that it may be due to a higher content of Propane, which has a lower boiling point and may be causing higher pressure which may be affecting cylinder valves, hoses and regulators.
The LP Gas standard has been drafted in accordance with the procedures of the Sri Lanka Standards Institute and the final draft is being prepared considering stakeholder comments and inputs received through a public consultation process.
The new standard includes consumer safety requirements when using LP gas cylinders, such as the maximum pressure of the gas cylinders, the maximum percentage of propane as well as labels such as net weight and the test date of cylinder.
“There was a standard that has been prepared much earlier for LP gas. Even that is not legalized or enforced yet,” Ratnayake said.
“One of the reasons for not enforcing the standard is the lack of a regulatory body to regulate LP gas. In 2002, the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka was appointed to regulate the petroleum industry, including LP gas.
“However, the Commission has not been legally empowered to regulate this area to date. In 2019, we started drafting standards for petroleum products with SLSI. We have already set standards for products such as petrol and diesel.
“These standards must be enforced to protect the consumer when using various products of petroleum. Therefore, we see the need for an institution with regulatory powers to enforce these.”
The earlier standard of LPG (SLS 712) of 1998 provides a specification for the use of commercial propane, commercial butane, propane and butane mixture and special duty propane.
But it does not mandate any ratio of propane to butane for domestic cooking the PUCSL said.
Ratnayake said regulatory powers of the LP Gas Market could be delegated to the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka by amending the Petroleum Products Special Provisions Act.
“The issues we are facing now are results of not having a proper regulator for LPG,” he said.
“We should also regulate the entire petroleum product portfolio of petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, marine fuel, furnace oil, kerosene, Natural Gas, lubricants and grease in order to avoid such situations in future,.
The industry act for PUCSLto regulate the downstream Petroleum Industry prepared by the Legal Draftsmen was cleared by the Attorney General in 2012.
But it needs to be re-certified by the Attorney General after checking the accordance with the20th Amendment to the Constitution and passed in the Parliament.
Outside of price regulation the PUCSL had been engaging in various measures to steadily improve household electricity safety and has also educated the public on frauds in lubricants.
However the regulator has failed in electricity price regulation and the power utility is making losses, adding to national debt.
Meanwhile domestic consumers now pay the highest rates, unless they are willing to cough up money to the renewable lobby.
The government has allowed price competition in LPG after price controls led to shortages.
Price controls on the CEB have also led to shortages in the form of load shedding in the past, forcing consumers to buy generators at high cost. (Colombo/Dec02/2021)