Sri Lanka · METHODOLOGY
LP Gas Prices — Methodology
How we collect and compare LP cooking-gas cylinder prices, and the limits of the comparison.
What we track
The refill price (in rupees) of each cooking-gas cylinder size from Sri Lanka's two LP-gas distributors — Litro Gas and Laugfs Gas— for every district. Both publish district-wise prices: Litro for 12.5kg, 5kg and 2.3kg; Laugfs for 12.5kg, 5kg, 2kg and a 37.5kg commercial cylinder. We capture every size and district at ingest; pick a district to compare both distributors across sizes, or “All districts” to see every district at once.
Sources & how we read them
We read each distributor's own published price list — never an aggregator — for editorial independence and traceability. Every row links back to the source.
- Laugfs publishes a plain price table, which we parse directly.
- Litro publishes its list only as an image. We read the image with OCR and then validate every numberbefore publishing it: all 25 districts must parse, each cylinder's price must be in a sane range, and the sizes must order correctly (12.5kg > 5kg > 2.3kg). If a read fails these checks, we publish nothing for that update rather than risk a mis-read price.
District pricing
LP gas prices vary by district (mostly transport cost) — Colombo and Gampaha are the lowest, the north and east a little higher. The board defaults to Colombo(the reference); pick your district to see local prices. A single nationwide number would be misleading, so the per-district figures are the real comparison.
How “cheapest” is decided
For each cylinder size in the selected district, the lower of the two distributors' prices is flagged. The 12.5kg domestic cylinder is the headline. The 12.5kg and 5kg sizes compare directly; the small cylinder differs by brand (Litro 2.3kg vs Laugfs 2kg) so it is shown per-distributor, not as a head-to-head.
Freshness & history
We re-check both price lists daily. A cylinder price's effective date can be weeks old while still in force, so the freshness tag shows when we last checked; each price's own effective date is shown on the cell. Every tracked price renders with a sparkline, and the interactive price-history chart on the board tracks the longer trend (pick a size and range; “All districts” shows the spread across districts).
Independence
Before You Picktakes no payment from distributors and no placement affects what is shown — prices come straight from each distributor's published list. See the price board.