COLOMBO – NEWSLINE DESK
Sri Lanka finds itself in a familiar crisis – but with a very different public response. Fuel shortages have returned, driven largely by global disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict. The government has tightened rationing, even introducing distribution based on vehicle number plates, while public transport services have been scaled back.
And yet, across the island, the long queues that once defined daily life are largely absent.
Be that as it may, this is not a contradiction – it is a shift in behaviour. Price increases of nearly 25% within days have tempered demand, while a population scarred by the 2022 collapse appears more cautious, more measured.
There is also something else at play
Confidence – or at least the absence of panic.
The government has moved quickly with emergency purchases and supply arrangements, including continued refined fuel inflows from India and Singapore under existing agreements.
This time, the system appears to be holding – for now.
But the deeper vulnerability remains unchanged. Sri Lanka is still acutely exposed to global energy shocks. When supply lines tighten globally, Colombo feels it almost immediately.
The queues may be gone. The risk has not.
