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Thursday December 7th, 2023

Sri Lanka private bus service in turmoil, must be permitted to refuel anywhere: PBOA

CROWDED: An overloaded bus in a suburb of Colombo, leaning sideways with passengers clinging to foot boards.

ECONOMYNEXT –  Some 5,000 buses in Sri Lanka’s private bus service are no longer in operation due to the country’s economic situation and the 11,000 buses that are still running can benefit from the fuel thus saved if the government permits them to refuel from any station, Private Bus Owners’ Association President Gemunu Wijeratne said.

Sri Lanka’s fuel quota allocation process is hampering the smooth operation of the country’s private bus service, Wijeratne told EconomyNext on Monday September 19.

“The allocation of fuel to the transport industry is not an efficient or fair allocation,” he said.

Sri Lanka’s prevailing currency crisis has pushed the island nation to ration fuel and sell petrol and diesel through a QR code-enabled quota system.

Private bus drivers are expected to fill up their buses at Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) depots.

Wijeratne said that buses must be allowed to fill up outside this system to ensure an efficient service.

Sri Lanka has 107 SLTB depots island-wide which dispense fuel as per the requirement of the transport providers.

With difficulties posed to the transport industry such as rising fuel prices, rationing and escalating spare part prices, has resulted in many leaving the industry due to instability in market conditions.

“More than 5,000 buses are no longer running, because of uncertainties in the industry. So with the number of buses leaving the industry, fuel is being saved as there are fewer buses to fill. That fuel can be issued to buses that are running,” said Wijeratne. (Colombo/Sep19/2022)

Comments (2)

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  1. sacre blieu says:

    For goodness sake get this service going on the right track. the road inspectors are a joke and even if they are on the streets the bribe-taking system comes into place. Most buses are hard sprung for carrying loads. The older one’s shock absorbers are non-functional and even the small ripples on the road are felt by passengers.

  2. sacre blieu says:

    We all will be ‘Kota Uda’ with all this criticism from important overseas monitors and reputed analysts. now, investors have been taken for suckers, once more, with the reported Bit Coin scandal. Government cannot, anymore, bail out foolish investors who repeatedly are lured into these scandals, knowing very well the past frauds and the many who lost even their life savings to be thrown out onto the streets. So, are we screwed now, considering the disgraceful unsolved and dragging of the investigations into such frauds knowing very well the evidence is there staring us in the face?

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Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. sacre blieu says:

    For goodness sake get this service going on the right track. the road inspectors are a joke and even if they are on the streets the bribe-taking system comes into place. Most buses are hard sprung for carrying loads. The older one’s shock absorbers are non-functional and even the small ripples on the road are felt by passengers.

  2. sacre blieu says:

    We all will be ‘Kota Uda’ with all this criticism from important overseas monitors and reputed analysts. now, investors have been taken for suckers, once more, with the reported Bit Coin scandal. Government cannot, anymore, bail out foolish investors who repeatedly are lured into these scandals, knowing very well the past frauds and the many who lost even their life savings to be thrown out onto the streets. So, are we screwed now, considering the disgraceful unsolved and dragging of the investigations into such frauds knowing very well the evidence is there staring us in the face?

COP28 sees new era for climate action with $57 bln pledge; Sri Lanka’s proposals need approval

ECONOMYNEXT – The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) has witnessed governments, businesses, investors, and philanthropies announcing support of over $57 billion across the climate agenda in just the first four days of the global event with eight pledges and declarations receiving historic support.

After a historic deal to operationalize a fund for climate impact response on the first day, announcements have poured in across the entire climate agenda, including on finance, health, food, nature, and energy.

On climate finance, the COP28 host United Arab Emirates launched a $30 billion catalytic fund, ALTÉRRA, with an emphasis on unlocking private finance across the Global South.

The host nation also has announced $200 million for SDRs and $150 million for water scarcity.

The World Bank has announced an increase of $9 billion annually to finance climate-related projects, while the first two days of COP28 saw $725 million in pledges after a historic response to loss and damage was operationalized.

Eight new declarations have been announced which are expected to help transform every major system of the global economy.

These include the first ever declarations on food systems transformation and health, plus declarations on renewable energy and efficiency, as well as initiatives to decarbonize heavy emitting industries.

The eight declarations are:

  • The Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge has been endorsed by 119 countries.
  • The COP28 UAE Declaration on Agriculture, Food, & Climate has received endorsements from 137 countries.
  • The COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate and Health has been endorsed by 125 countries.
  • The COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate Relief, Recovery & Peace has been endorsed by 74 countries and 40 organizations.
  • The COP28 UAE Declaration on Climate Finance has been endorsed by 12 countries.
  • The Coalition for High Ambition Multilevel Partnerships (Champ) Pledge has been endorsed by 64 countries.
  • The Oil and Gas Decarbonization Charter has been endorsed by 51 companies, representing 40 percent of global oil production.
  • The Industrial Transition Accelerator has been endorsed by 35 companies and six industry associations, including World Steel Association, International Aluminium Institute, Global Renewable Alliance, Global Cement and Concrete Association, Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, International Air Transport Association.

Three additional declarations will be announced in the coming days on hydrogen, cooling, and gender. The number of countries supporting these declarations and pledges is growing and demonstrates an unprecedented level of inclusivity at this COP.

Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe announced three new proposals: Climate Justice Forum (CJF), Tropical Belt Initiative (TBI), and International Climate Change University in Sri Lanka.

However, the proposals are yet to get approval from the general UN body though the island nation’s authorities expect wide support for the moves.

“What we have done is to talk to countries about the initiatives and launch them. Next step is for them to be formally recognized by the main body,” Ruwan Wijewardena, the Senior Advisor to President Wickremesinghe on Climate change, told Economy Next.

Breakdown of financial pledges and contributions so far:

  • Loss and Damage: $725 million
  • Green Climate Fund: $3.5 billion (increasing second replenishment to $12.8 billion)
  • Renewable Energy: $2.5 billion
  • Technology: $568 million
  • Methane: $1.2 billion
  • Climate Finance: Over $30 billion from UAE (plus $200 million in Special Drawing Rights and an increase of $9 billion annually from the World Bank)
  • Food: $2.6 Billion
  • Nature: $2.6 Billion
  • Health: $2.7 billion
  • Water: $150 million
  • Relief, Recovery and Peace: $1.2 billion
  • Local Climate Action: $467 million (Dubai/Dec 6/2023)
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Sri Lanka to start international tourism branding campaign

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka will soon start a tourism international marketing campaign under the theme ‘You will come back for more,” Tourism Minister Harin Fernando said.

“We have not had a branding campaign for 15 years,” Fernando told parliament. “A campaign has been developed by Ogilvy.

“It will help us reach the target of 2.3 million tourists next year.”

This year Sri Lanka is expecting a 1.5 million tourists with close to 1.3 million reached by November.

About 6,000 tourists are now coming each day, at the moment he said.

On December 10, three cruise ships are due. (Colombo/Nov06/2023)

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Sri Lanka 3-month Treasuries yields fall

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Treasury bill yields eased across maturities with the tree month yield falling 19 basis points to 14.67 percent, data from the state debt office showed.

A total of 185 billion rupees in bills were sold, with sharply lower than offered volumes in 12-months sold.

The debt office offered 55 billion rupees of 3 -month bills and sold 87 billion.

92 billion rupees of 6-month bills were sold after offering 60 billion at 14.38 percent down 14 basis points.

Only 5.2 billion rupees of 12-month bills were sold after offering 70 billion rupees, at 12.88 percent, down 01 basis point. (Colombo/Dec06/2023)

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