News
Environment Minister moves to tackle burnt ship fuel racket causing environmental harm
By Ifham Nizam
The environment Ministry will soon present a Cabinet Memorandum to regulate the proper use of burnt fuel oil discharged from ships here.
This move follows, a tug of war between the Environment Ministry and some of the officials of the Central Environmental Authority on issuing permits for oil clearance
The Cabinet paper will be presented to the Cabinet meeting next week after Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera and Ministry Secretary Dr. Anil Jasinghe returns from an overseas visit.
The objective of the Cabinet Memorandum was to promote the process of disposing of fuel oil in a systematic manner as a source of revenue for the country in dollars, a senior official said.
At present, the amount of fuel oil discharged annually from ships coming to our country exceeds 20,000 metric tonnes. About 27 agencies and individuals have been licensed to use them. But according to the current system, it will not bring any income to our country. Instead, due to competition among buyers, Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange is flowing out as ships are paid to obtain the discarded burnt oil.
As a result, the country has lost a large amount of its annual revenue for decades. The other is to tackle the problem of releasing the remaining toxic waste after extracting the oil into the environment.
Commenting on this, Environment Minister Amaraweera said: “Sri Lanka is the only country in the world that pays for garbage. At present 27 institutions and individuals are engaged in such activities but only four institutions have formal refining facilities. Others have no refining facilities. Also, these refineries can refine only 4,800 tonnes of burnt fuel oil annually.
“We have information that remaining fuel oil is being dumped near rivers or canals,” the Minister said.
The Cabinet Memorandum would be submitted to inform the Cabinet of Ministers in this regard and to prevent the damage caused to the environment of the country to earn revenue from this fuel and to regulate it properly, the minister said.
The Paddy Marketing Board has approximately 115,000 metric tonnes of paddy stocks purchased from farmers, which are currently stored in the Board’s warehouses, and it has been planned to retain a sufficient buffer stock from these reserves and sell the remaining quantity in order to provide the necessary storage space and financial resources for the purchase of paddy from farmers during the upcoming Yala season.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to sell the aforementioned paddy stocks
following a formal tender procedure.
The Promotion of Export Agriculture Act, No. 46 of 1992 provides the legal provisions for regulating and promoting the export agriculture sector in this country.
Taking into consideration administrative changes and sectoral developments that have taken place over time, approval was granted at the Cabinet Meetings held on 2023-09-04 and 2025-08-11 to amend the said Act, which has not been updated for over 30 years.
The proposed amendments are intended to amend the designations of the Head of the Department of Export Agriculture and other officials, and to provide a clearer definition of the term “the export agricultural crop.”
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation to publish in the Government Gazette the Draft Export Agriculture Promotion (Amendment) Bill, prepared in all three languages by the Legal Draftsman to amend the Export Agriculture Promotion Act, No. 46 of 1992, and thereafter submit the same to Parliament for its concurrence
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