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Sri Lanka's energy minister Kanachana Wijesekera warned that the cash-strapped nation fuel supply will last less than a day under the current demand as the country's economy continues to cripple.
On Sunday Wijesekera said that Sri Lanka has 12,774 tonnes of diesel and 4,061 tonnes of petrol left in its reserves while the next shipment is due in two weeks.
Wijesekera also admitted that another shipment was due at the weekend but the impoverished nation does not have enough money to pay for it.
Last week, Sri Lanka announced that fuel would only be supplied to essential services such as the health, defence, power and export industries until July 10th. Cabinet spokesperson Bandula Gunawardane also said that schools in urban areas will be closed while workers were urged to work from home in an attempt to deal with the fuel shortage.
Sri Lanka have also sent high level delegations to both Qatar and Russia in recent weeks to secure more fuel supplies as they are banned from borrowing money from international markets.
The Sri Lankan government are currently in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to discuss a bailout. An IMF delegation concluded their visit to Sri Lanka last week vowing to continue discussions with the island but refusing to commit to a $3 billion dollar bailout.
The IMF has stressed that before Sri Lanka can receive aid, its debt would need to bring down to a “sustainable level”.
Read more from the BBC here.