Lanka IOC and Sinopec have raised the price of a litre of Octane 95 petrol by Rs 20, taking it to Rs 515 with effect from midnight on Wednesday.
Both companies announced the revision on 4 November, Hiru News reported late on Wednesday night. The Island reported the same increase and supplied the starting point: the grade moves from Rs 495 to Rs 515.
That matches this desk’s record. Lanka IOC last set Octane 95 at Rs 495 on 25 October, so the grade has risen Rs 20 in ten days.
Only one grade, only two retailers
Neither of the first two filings reports a change to any other product. Octane 92 petrol, auto diesel and super diesel are not mentioned.
Update: CPC had already moved, and the gap is now Rs 25
A later Daily Mirror filing supplies the state-sector comparison the first two reports left out — and it changes the picture. The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation raised its own Octane 95 price by Rs 15 to Rs 490 a litre with effect from 1 November, the Daily Mirror reported on Thursday morning.
So the state retailer did not sit still while the private operators moved: it revised three days earlier, by a smaller amount.
The consequence is a widened price gap on the same grade. Motorists buying Octane 95 from Lanka IOC or Sinopec now pay Rs 25 more per litre than those buying it from CPC — Rs 515 against Rs 490.
The Daily Mirror also places this increase in a sequence. It is the second Rs 20 increase by the two private companies inside 10 days: on 25 October they took the grade from Rs 475 to Rs 495, and this revision takes it from Rs 495 to Rs 515. Over that stretch, Octane 95 at the private pumps has risen Rs 40, while CPC’s has risen Rs 15.
That ordering matters. Private retailers in Sri Lanka have at times moved ahead of CPC and at times followed it; here both moved within the same week, by different amounts and on different dates, and no filing explains why the increments differ.
Context: a dispute over margins is already running
The increase lands the same day the private retailers’ position on pricing was put to Parliament by Patali Champika Ranawaka, who accused CPC of profiteering while denying private operators a level playing field.
Not reported
No outlet gives a reason for the increase, and none cites global crude movements, the exchange rate or the monthly pricing formula. None states whether the two companies revised independently or in step, despite announcing identical prices on the same night, and none explains why CPC’s increase was Rs 15 where theirs was Rs 20. None reports the volume of the market the two retailers serve, and none carries comment from CPC or the Ministry of Energy.