India Has Sent 76,000 Tonnes of Fuel to Sri Lanka in Last 24 hours

Sri Lanka is facing a massive shortage in essential goods and services and a plummeting economy.

(Photo: Namita Chauhan/Altered by The Quint)

India has sent one consignment each of 36,000 MT petrol and 40,000 MT diesel to Sri Lanka in the last 24 hours, the High Commission of India in Colombo informed on Wednesday, 6 April.

"The total supply of various types of fuel under Indian assistance now stands at more than 270,000 MT," the High Commission of India in Colombo, Sri Lanka, said.

Last week, on Saturday, India had supplied 40,000 tonnes of diesel under a $1 billion credit line given to Sri Lanka.

The island nation is struggling with an ongoing financial crisis that has impacted the supply of basic goods such as food, medicine, and fuel.

Sri Lanka's Economic Crisis

People are protesting in different cities including capital Colombo against the government's policies.

Amid this economic nightmare, the central government of Sri Lanka has turned to both India and China for aid, as it struggles to pull the country out of this crisis and calm public tempers.

Meanwhile, a minister of the island nation said on Wednesday, 6 April, that Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will not resign.

President Rajapaksa on Tuesday, 5 April, revoked a state of emergency that was imposed in the country to quell the rampant protests amid the economic turmoil in the nation.

Diesel, the main fuel for buses and commercial vehicles, has been unavailable at stations across the island for over a week, crippling livelihoods and public transport.

Power cuts lasting over 13 hours were imposed – the longest cut since 1996 when a strike by the state employees caused a 72-hour-long black out.

In a shocking incident over the weekend, the police stated that two men had collapsed and died while waiting in separate queues to buy fuel.

Currency reserves have slumped 70 percent in the past two years to $2.31 billion. Sri Lanka has to repay about $4 billion in debt over the rest of this year, including a $1 billion international sovereign bond that matures in July.

The main cause of the country's crumbling economy is its shortage of foreign currency, which has led to a massive reduction in imports of essential items.