Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) and LankaClear Pvt. Ltd. (LCPL) recently signed a ground-breaking agreement, which will result in greater convenience for Sri Lankan citizens to make online payments towards Government services. Under this new agreement, two existing systems would be integrated to enable citizens to make online payments utilizing their current and savings (CASA) accounts. ICTA is the National Digital Transformation Agency gazetted under Ministry Digital Infrastructure & Information Technology and LankaClear Pvt. Ltd. is the operator of LankaPay National Payment network, which functions under the guidance and supervision of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL).  This is a significant step forward in digital payments in the country and  put allissues regarding the controversial National Payment Platform (NPP) to rest. CEO of ICTA, Damith Hettihewa and General Manager/CEO of LankaClear, Channa de Silva signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations while Professor Rohan Samarajiva, Chairman of ICTA and Mr. Ravi de Silva, Secretary General of Sri Lanka Banks’ Association represented the Board of Directors of LankaClear and joined the occasion of signing. This agreement and the way forward to facilitate future online payments via this new initiative has been cleared and approved by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL), which is a major breakthrough for the country.

Minister of Digital Infrastructure and Information Technology Hon. Ajith P. Perera welcomed the signing of this agreement as the first step for extending a greater convenience to the public. Hon. Minister, while applauding the initiative, stated that enabling online payments for government services from individual bank accounts will expand the digital payments landscape of Sri Lanka and requested the two organizations to implement this initiative expeditiously in order to make Sri Lanka a digitally advanced and empowered nation.

ICTA currently facilitates online payments for certain eGovernment services using credit cards through its Lanka Government Payment Service (LGPS), which is an interface implemented by ICTA to facilitate online payments for government organizations. LGPS aspires to offer multiple payment options to individuals and currently facilitates payments through international credit card schemes and mobile phone based e-money wallet systems.

LCPL operates the national payment network and provides the backbone for licensed commercial banks and other participants authorized and regulated by the CBSL to facilitate interbank payments. LCPL has already implemented the Lanka Pay Online Payment Platform (LPOPP), which is an online payment platform approved by CBSL and currently facilitates individuals and businesses to make real-time payments from their current of savings accounts when obtaining services from organizations that are connected to LPOPP. CBSL operates the Real-time Gross settlement system (RTGS) through which all-interbank settlements are carried out to complete the end-to-end payment and settlement cycle.

As a result of this endeavor, by integrating LGPS with LPOPP, individuals and businesses will be able to make online payments to a plethora of government services directly from their current or savings accounts utilizing already existing payment infrastructure such as Internet/mobile banking facilities and FinTech apps.  This initiative will be launched in the near future with the intention of promoting digital payments in Sri Lanka as a national endeavor for the benefit of the public and to make it convenient for individuals and businesses to make seamless payments to obtain government Services, subject to the regulations set forth by CBSL.

Sri Lanka’s credit card and phone e-money base is insignificant compared to the segment of population who own bank accounts. The country’s total credit card base is less than 10% of the population, but more than 20 million current or savings accounts are in operation via commercial banks and finance companies regulated by CBSL. According to a recent survey done by by LIRNEasia, only around 1.5 million uses government services online.  Non availability of payment options via current and savings accounts is considered as a major contributor towards low use of online government services such as eRevenue license, , , eTicketing for cultural (Sigiriya)  and wildlife parks and eLocal government tax payments etc. This initiative between ICTA and LCPL will enable a majority of the households in the country to seamlessly pay and obtain for government services online.

(From Left to Right) Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, Chairman - ICTA, Damith Hettihewa, CEO - ICTA, Channa de Silva, General Manager/CEO – LankaClear, Ravi de Silva, Secretary General - Sri Lanka Banks’ Association and Board Director of LankaClear, Dinuka Perera, DGM - IT and Operations, LankaClear.