The Sri Lankan government has no money to buy oil and calls on foreign diaspora to remit money for emergency

Jimu News reporter Zhang Yang

On July 3, local time, Sri Lanka, who was out of economic crisis, decided to extend the school's suspension time for a week. The Minister of Energy calls on the country to remit money to the country through banks to provide purchase funds for newly ordered oil.

According to the Associated Press, last month, due to the shortage of fuel, schools in the country have been suspended for one day, and schools in urban areas have been suspended in the past two weeks.

Line in the gas station waiting for the locals who are waiting for refueling

In addition, because it is impossible to provide sufficient fuel for the power plant, the authorities have also announced that they have implemented electricity restriction measures nationwide from this Monday, and have a maximum of three hours per day. For a few months, large -scale power outages have also troubled Sri Lanka's economy, and the essential necessities of life, including gas, drugs and food imports, have a serious shortage.

Due to huge amounts of debt, no energy supplier is currently willing to sell fuel to the island country. Officials in the country said that the available fuel inventory has only been maintained for a few days, and it can only be used for basic services, including health, port workers, public transportation and food distribution.

Sri Lanka's Electricity and Energy Minister Weegezerla told the Associated Press that the government has ordered a new fuel inventory. The first ship carrying 40,000 tons of diesel is expected to arrive on July 8th, and the first ship is equipped with gasoline The ship will arrive on July 22. Several batches of fuel are also on the way.

Most of Sri Lanka's fuel has always been imported from neighboring India. The government said they are still negotiating with Russian and Malaysia suppliers to seek more fuel supply.

However, Weijecela also said that the authorities are working hard to raise $ 587 million to pay fuel costs, and Sri Lanka has owed seven fuel suppliers about $ 800 million. He said: "Booking money is a challenge, a huge challenge."

Veracecola said that their main problem is lack of foreign exchange, that is, US dollars. He called for about 2 million Sri Lankans to work in foreign exchange revenue back to China through formal channels such as banks. According to him, this type of remittance is usually about $ 600 million per month, but it has fallen to $ 318 million in June.

According to data from the Sri Lanka Central Bank, foreign remittances are the main sources of foreign exchange income from the country. The remittance of the first six months in 2021 was US $ 2.8 billion, and the same period of the same period this year has fallen to $ 1.3 billion, a decrease of 53%.

The total foreign debt of Sri Lanka was US $ 51 billion, and the country paid US $ 25 billion in accordance with the contract by 2026. At present, it has suspended the repayment of approximately US $ 7 billion in foreign debt this year.

Economic collapse also triggered a political crisis, and extensive anti -government protests broke out across the country. The protesters blocked the main roads requiring the government to provide gasoline and other fuels. People in some regions had violent fighting to compete for limited inventory. In order to maintain order, the government has sent soldiers to the major gas stations.

At the capital Colombo, the protesters were crowded at the entrance of the Presidential Office for more than two months, asking President Gota Baya Rajapaksa to step down. The protesters accused his policy offend the country in crisis, and he should be responsible for the economic crisis.

(Picture Source: Associated Press)

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