The Government of Sri Lanka recently launched its Government Digital Payment Platform, better known as GovPay. The platform is meant to streamline digital payments across numerous government services ranging from Divisional Secretariats to regulatory bodies like TRCSL.
GovPay was first unveiled in March 2024 as a pilot project integrating services from 14 government institutes, ranging from the Department of Ayurveda to the Sri Lanka Port Authority. The platform included 16 institutes at launch, with 30 more to be added by April. By now, GovPay has expanded to include the University of Colombo School of Computing, the Excise Department, the Department of Technical Education and Training, and the National Cancer Institute.
Most of Sri Lanka’s commercial banks and fintech players, such as HelaPay and iPay, support the GovPay system. Associated e-government services via GovPay are integrated into these banking functions. This means that, for instance, you can pay your liquor tax to the Excise Department directly through iPay or BOC’s banking portal.
The government’s efforts to promote wide adoption extend to the transactions themselves. GovPay’s transactions are processed at LKR 15 per transaction, as opposed to the standard LKR 50. According to the ICTA, the platform will also add support for credit and debit card payments in the future.
Institutes linked up to GovPay so far
- Department of Ayurveda
- Divisional Secretariat, Jaffna
- Divisional Secretariat, Kegalle
- Divisional Secretariat, Mahara
- Divisional Secretariat, Ratmalana
- Divisional Secretariat, Thimbirigasyaya
- Municipal Council, Gampaha
- Pradeshiya Sabha, Rambukkana
- Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board
- Sri Lanka Port Authority
- Survey Department
- Telecommunications Regulatory Commission
- University of Moratuwa
- Vocational Training Authority
- Excise Department
- University of Colombo School of Computing
- Department of Technical Education and Training
- National Cancer Institute
Streamlining government services into a single digital platform is a noticeably big step in the state’s digitalization efforts. The move would likely push more state departments to build their digital presence to facilitate services online. But while the likes of GovPay steer ahead, other parts of the government’s online presence still seem to be years behind.
Notably, Sri Lanka is no stranger to disregarding data privacy and basic web security at the state level. Be it a gov[.]lk website without an SSL certificate or the Sri Lanka Police asking citizens to sideload a surveillance app. In a landscape where even one of the biggest fintech platforms suffered a data breach, better efforts need to be made to update the rest of the e-government infrastructure. If not, this will only hinder any meaningful digitalization attempts.
Overall, GovPay shows the potential of government services in the digital space. But we’ve been here before and it’s not uncommon to see promising projects stalled or discontinued over time. The current government has already indicated that it is serious about embracing the digital economy, at least on paper. So, it would be interesting to see how things pan out in the next few years.
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