The state-owned Litro Gas will have its LPG supply agreement expired on August 31, and tenders have been called to buy 250,000 mt in consideration of the market demand.

Of the bidders, Shell Eastern Trading was chosen in view of the safety of transportation, number of ships owned by it, and for having placed the lowest bid, that is 58 US dollars per ton.

In a newspaper advertisement yesterday (17), Litro Gas said it has been able to save Rs. 2.5 billion of public money due to this agreement – Rs. 1.7 billion from the new agreement and a further Rs. 800 million from the previous contract.

However, Amarasuriya has been exerting pressure to award the tender to the Singaporean company Vitol, which has placed a bid of 81 USD per ton.

If the contract is given to this company, the loss will be nearly Rs. 850 million (5.7 million USD).

Attempts to reach Amarasuriya for a comment failed as his phone remained switched off.

Given below are two letters sent by him Litro Gas executive chairman Shaleela Munasinghe, influencing him to suspend awarding the tender, and the Litro Gas newspaper advertisement: