Sri Lanka has been trying for many years to introduce Paypal, the world’s most widely used online payment facility to the country but has not been able to do so, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Minister of State for Finance, Capital Markets and Public Enterprises told Lankasara. According to him till Paypal is introduced to Sri Lanka the public should address these needs through options such as PayHerePayments, DirectPay, WEBXPAY, Xoom, skrill, Payoneer, Earthport and Genie which are now gaining popularity.
He said that the present government has not given up on the idea of obtaining this facility and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has already discussed the possibility of obtaining this facility through the US Embassy.
PayPal is the most widely accepted international money transfer facility in many online transactions in the world. This is especially true on major online marketplace platforms such as Amazon ebay.
Although PayPal allows Sri Lankans to purchase goods or services abroad, the company does not provide local entrepreneurs with the facility to receive money to Sri Lanka through PayPal.
Sri Lanka has even made diplomatic efforts in this regard for nearly six years now. An official of the Central Bank told us that the Department of Payments and Settlements of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka is working on this matter and further discussions are being held between the two parties.
Attempts to avail this facility were made during the tenure of the present Minister of State, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, during his tenure as the Governor of the Central Bank. Cabraal said that as more and more such alternative payment platforms are becoming popular around the world, it is more important to focus on them and meet our needs.
“Accordingly, our entrepreneurs who transact online should pay more attention to the places and markets where they can take advantage of the opportunities available for online transactions through the above payment platforms” he said.
