The South Asian nation is facing its worst economic collapse since gaining independence from Britain in 1948, and has been unable to fund even commodity imports since late last year. As fuel stocks plummeted to just enough for another day, government spokesman Bandula Gunawardana said the sales ban was to save petrol and diesel for emergencies. He urged the private sector to let employees work from home as public transport has stopped. “As of midnight today, no fuel will be sold except for basic services such as the health sector, because we want to maintain the few stocks we have,” Gunawardana said in an earlier statement. He apologized to the consumers for the shortcomings: “We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to the people”. A woman returns home from work on her bicycle in Colombo amid fuel and financial crisis in Sri Lanka. Photo: Pradeep Dambarage / NurPhoto / Rex / Shutterstock The country is also facing record high inflation and long power outages, which have contributed to months of protests – sometimes violent – calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign. Last week, all government schools were closed and state institutions were staffed to reduce travel and conserve oil. The closure of the public sector was due to end this week, but is now being extended until July 10, when Gunawardana promised to resume fuel supplies. On Sunday, the government promised to implement a symbolic system for distributing limited fuel stocks, but failed to take off. There were long queues outside the few pumping stations that still had supplies. Sri Lanka is looking for cheap oil from Russia and Qatar. Earlier this month, the United Nations launched an emergency response to the island’s unprecedented economic crisis, feeding thousands of pregnant women facing food shortages. Four out of five people in Sri Lanka have started skipping meals as they cannot afford to eat, the UN said, warning of an impending “terrible humanitarian crisis” with millions in need of help. Sri Lanka went bankrupt on $ 51 billion in foreign debt in April and is in talks with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout.
