A Cabinet paper is to be submitted to write off more than Rs.15 billion owed to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) from the distributors as bad debt.

The amount owed to the CPC under fuel price stabilization which is based on the calculation of rebates to distributors has exceeded Rs.15 billion when compared to the fluctuations in fuel prices.The Board of Directors has decided that when providing filling stations to China’s Sinopec, Australia’s United Petroleum and the USA’s RM Parks Inc for the sale of fuel in the Sri Lankan market, they cannot be released as filling stations owed to the CPC.

A senior official said that a Cabinet paper will be submitted proposing to write off this amount, taking into consideration the loss incurred by the distributors during the decrease in oil price.CPC workers meanwhile demanded that this loan amount, which would be written off for the benefit of the distributors, be used for the benefit of the public.They pointed out that the majority of distributors are allies of politicians.Although the CPC Marketing Bureau had earlier tried to recover this due amount from the distributors in four installments, several distributors had taken steps to file a lawsuit against the CPC.