Sri Lankans urged to use plastic money
View(s):The Central Bank (CB) has launched a public relations exercise to encourage Sri Lankans to use plastic money – debit and credit cards – instead of coins and currency notes as the main form of financial transactions, officials said. In advertisements in local newspapers, the CB urged the use of payment cards for financial transactions as it avoids the inconvenience of carrying cash fear of cash being stolen and hassle of using currency notes.
However, government sources said the main reason for the move was to reduce the circulation of ‘black (or illegal)’ money in the economy.
CB sources said that a payment platform has been developed for this purpose while commercial banks will be soon informed (through a circular) to encourage customers to use debit cards (particularly for low end communities). The CB ads said that 16 million payment cards are currently in use by Sri Lankans and 60 million transactions take place annually. According to CB data there are around 14.7 million debit cards and 1.3 million credit cards issued by banks and licensed financial institutions in the country.