Sri Lanka’s public transport fares will move to an e-ticket system by the end of this year, a senior transport official has said.
“An electronic ticketing system for public transport services, including trains, will be introduced before the end of the year,” Secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Highways, RG Rubasinghe told reporters on Monday.
Sri Lanka has been talking of moving to an e-ticketing for state buses to stop revenue theft by bus conductors.
“Some conductors take a portion of the money home,” Minister of Transport Bandula Gunawardana told reporters earlier this year.
“The take home amount is 10 million rupees daily, or 100 lakhs, which together becomes 3 billion a year.
Gunawardana said that there was opposition from transportation workers with some of them taking the matter to court.
A recent reduction in bus fares saw the minimum fare reduced from 30 rupees to 28. But since most passengers don’t carry coins, the exact fare cannot be paid. Conductors are not forthcoming with change money, so passengers forfeit
money.
After Sri Lanka’s economic crisis, many global institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have strongly recommended the Sri Lankan government to fully digitalise its transactions to reduce human interventions and eventually corruption.
