Litro Gas Lanka has reduced the price of its domestic LP gas cylinders with effect from today, chairman Channa Gunawardana announced — and within hours the country’s canteen owners said a cup of tea would get cheaper too.
The new prices, reported by Ada Derana, the Daily Mirror and Hiru News in identical terms:
| Cylinder | Reduction | New price |
|---|---|---|
| 12.5 kg | Rs. 100 | Rs. 4,365 |
| 5 kg | Rs. 42 | Rs. 1,750 |
| 2.3 kg | Rs. 20 | Rs. 815 |
Litro said it had decided to cut prices for September “in order to provide relief to consumers” despite rising international gas prices and challenging exchange rate conditions — the same two pressures it cited in August, when it chose to hold prices rather than cut them.
A move, after months of holding
The reduction is the first change to Litro’s price card in some time. The company left prices unchanged for August, keeping the 12.5 kg cylinder at Rs. 4,465 — the figure today’s Rs. 100 cut is taken from. It had also held flat in June and May, when the same cylinder stood at Rs. 4,765 in the Colombo District.
On that basis the household 12.5 kg cylinder has fallen Rs. 400 since June, though the archive holds no July revision and the exact path between the two figures is not documented.
Litro is the dominant supplier of domestic LPG in Sri Lanka and its monthly pricing decision is watched as a cost-of-living indicator.
LAUGFS does not follow
Later on Saturday evening, LAUGFS Gas — the other domestic supplier — announced that its refill prices would not change for September, Ada Derana reported. Its cylinders continue at the rates set in July, when LAUGFS last revised its price card.
That decision breaks the pattern of August, when both companies held together, and leaves a two-tier market for the rest of the month:
| 12.5 kg cylinder | Price |
|---|---|
| Litro (from today) | Rs. 4,365 |
| LAUGFS (unchanged since July) | Rs. 4,965 |
| Difference | Rs. 600 |
LAUGFS said in July that it was cutting the 12.5 kg cylinder by Rs. 1,280 and the 5 kg by Rs. 512, bringing them to Rs. 4,965 and Rs. 1,988. Those figures reconcile exactly against this archive’s record of the company’s last increase on 7 May, when the 12.5 kg cylinder rose to Rs. 6,245 and the 5 kg to Rs. 2,500.
The gap has narrowed rather than widened. In May, LAUGFS’s increase against an unchanged Litro opened a Rs. 1,480 difference on the 12.5 kg cylinder — the widest in recent memory. Today’s Rs. 600 is well below that, but it still means the same quantity of cooking gas costs materially more or less depending on which brand a household’s local distributor stocks.
A direct comparison is not possible at every size. LAUGFS’s published district price list shows its smallest domestic cylinder is 2 kg, against Litro’s 2.3 kg, and LAUGFS also lists a 37.5 kg unit that has no counterpart in Litro’s announcement. That list also shows LAUGFS prices are not uniform nationally: the Rs. 4,965 figure applies to Colombo and Gampaha, rising to Rs. 5,336 in Jaffna — a spread of Rs. 371 across the country. Litro’s announcement did not specify whether its own prices vary by district.
Tea down Rs. 5 — short eats unchanged
The All Island Canteen and Restaurant Owners’ Association said it would cut the price of a cup of milk tea and a cup of plain tea by Rs. 5, attributing the decision directly to the gas reduction, Hiru News reported. The new prices take effect from midnight tonight.
The association was explicit that short eats will not change.
That is a narrower pass-through than the last time the association moved on a gas cut. On 4 July, after a fall in both fuel and LP gas prices, it cut plain tea by Rs. 5 and took Rs. 15 off a rice packet, fried rice and kottu roti, with paratha, egg roti and short eats down Rs. 5 each. This time only the two tea prices move.
A note on the cylinder size
Hiru described the largest cylinder as 12.05 kg. Ada Derana and the Daily Mirror both say 12.5 kg, which is the standard domestic size and the figure used consistently in this archive. Litro’s own August price of Rs. 4,465 for the 12.5 kg cylinder, less the announced Rs. 100, gives exactly today’s Rs. 4,365 — confirming the three reductions apply to the standard 12.5 kg, 5 kg and 2.3 kg cylinders. Hiru appears to have misplaced a decimal point.
Not reported
No outlet gave a reason for the timing of Litro’s cut beyond the company’s general relief statement, or said whether the September revision reflects a movement in the pricing formula, the rupee, or a commercial decision to absorb less. Nor did any outlet report whether commercial and industrial cylinder prices change, or whether Litro’s Colombo District price card differs from prices elsewhere. The canteen owners’ association did not say whether rice-packet or kottu prices were considered and rejected.
LAUGFS gave no reason for holding while its competitor cut, and no outlet asked it to explain the resulting Rs. 600 gap or said whether it intends to respond later in the month.
Update, September 6: Two further newsrooms have now carried the LAUGFS decision, which Ada Derana alone had reported on Saturday evening. Both the Daily Mirror and Hiru News confirm there will be no revision to LAUGFS’s domestic refill prices for September.
Hiru’s report supplies the figures Ada Derana’s did not, and they match this article’s reconstruction exactly: the 12.5 kg cylinder remains at Rs. 4,965 and the 5 kg at Rs. 1,988 — confirming both the Rs. 600 gap against Litro’s new price and the July revision those figures date from. Neither outlet gives a reason for the hold, and neither addresses the gap.
Sources
- Litro Gas prices reduced — Ada Derana, September 5
- Litro gas prices slashed — Daily Mirror, September 5
- Litro gas prices reduced from today — Hiru News, September 5
- A steep discount: milk and plain tea prices cut by Rs. 5 — Hiru News, September 5
- LAUGFS Gas prices unchanged for September — Ada Derana, September 5
- LAUGFS Gas prices unchanged in September — Daily Mirror, September 6
- LAUGFS Gas prices unchanged for September — Hiru News, September 6
