Sri Lanka made a total of Rs. 1.78 trillion in digital payments in 2024, up by 114% from the payments made in 2023, totalling to Rs. 828 billion, Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya told Parliament yesterday (24).
“In 2024, the total digital payments made to governmental institutions were Rs. 1.78 trillion. The previous year, in 2023, the total in digital payments made to government institutions was Rs. 828 billion,” Amarasuriya said.
“This is a more than 100% increase in payments.”
According to Amarasuriya, in 2024, the Sri Lanka Customs earned Rs. 1,100 billion, the Inland Revenue Department earned Rs. 618 billion, the Sri Lanka Ports Development Authority earned Rs. 19 billion, and the Employees Provident Fund earned Rs. 41 billion through digital payments.
Amarasuriya explained that the government is in the process of further digitising institutions and onboarding them to the government’s own digital payment system “GovPay”.
The GovPay platform in Sri Lanka was officially launched on 7 February, marking the government’s first step towards digitising all government payments through a single online platform.
The digitisation of payments in Sri Lanka began gaining momentum in the early 2010s, with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) and the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) having played key roles in this transformation during its early stages.
The Indian government’s expertise in digital payment systems, particularly through its unified payments interface (UPI), has influenced Sri Lanka’s approach to digitising payments, as the Indian government has provided technical assistance and knowledge sharing to Sri Lanka in developing its digital payment infrastructure (DPI).
“As measures to improve the ease of doing business, by the mandate of the President signed on 29 January; state owned enterprises (SOEs) and other relevant government institutions, those with information communication technology facilities, and those without are to be digitised,” Amarasuriya said.
She added that the Sri Lanka Customs, Sri Lanka Ports Development Authority, Inland Revenue Department, and certain government institutions with ICT facilities are to be boarded onto the government digital payments system.