(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) – The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) has decided to investigate the import, production, distribution and sale of lubricants and related products in Sri Lanka from today due to the increase of consumer complaints on low-quality lubricants in the market.
Accordingly, the raids on illegal lubricants products will be carried out island-wide by CAA with the assistance of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), the shadow regulator of the lubricant market of Sri Lanka.
Petroleum resources development section has granted legal approval for 13 companies to import, manufacture, distribute and sell lubricant and related products under 22 brand names. However, it has been identified that varieties of lubricants under unauthorized brands and companies have been released to the market.
These products have been identified as very low quality and the use of these products will cause defects in vehicle engines in a short period of time that can result in importing spare parts to a higher price which will result in impacting the foreign exchange of the country. Consumers have greatly inconvenienced by these frequent technical errors while the government of Sri Lanka also had lost a huge amount of tax due to this illegal market expansion of low-quality lubricants.
A large number of illicit lubricant products were seized in 15 raids yesterday (17th Feb 2020) and the value of the products is estimated to be around 2.5 million rupees.
