Government persuades PayPal to start inward remittance service
View(s):Popular worldwide online system PayPal has been persuaded to start the inward money transferring service to facilitate the e-market place enabling Sri Lankan brands, entrepreneurs and companies to have more opportunities.
The government will be seeking PayPal to provide Sri Lankans inward access so that they can receive payments for the supply of products and services to their local bank account through this system
Sri Lankan youths engaged in web design and development, graphic designing and more have made a request from the high officials at a meeting held recently at the Prime Minister’s office at Temple Trees in Colombo removing restrictions on receiving payments online.
One of the problems the entrepreneurs are facing today is the absence of a mechanism to receive payments online from the consumers if they are engaging in e-commerce in its proper sense.
At present Sri Lankans can send money to any PayPal user, but they cannot receive money from anyone through PayPal.
So clients deny offers from local freelancers working online as they are required to use complex money transfer methods and hire people from countries that support PayPal, several members of Online Entrepreneurs Society told the Business Times. The present administration is now very keen to bring PayPal or a similar facility for the benefit of information technology workers who also want to receive inward payments, convener of the society Lasantha Wickremasinghe said.
The government will address the requirement to have this payment gateway that will facilitate the e-market place where Sri Lankan brands and companies will have more opportunities, a senior Treasury official disclosed.
Although several efforts were made by the Central Bank in reaching PayPal’s Singapore regional office, PayPal argued that they weren’t interested in entering the Sri Lankan market because it was too small, he added.
Sri Lanka’s electronic transactions Act limits local businesses from engaging in global electronic payment platforms such as PayPal and Stripe, reducing inward ecommerce sales, legal experts pointed out
PayPal’s expectations of weak volume, undermining the business case for payments, while another said potential liabilities from Sri Lanka’s forex laws were a concern at one time.
But according to a senior Central Bank official the Monetary Board was prepared to provide special approval for Paypal if the firm requested but even under existing regulations there was no restriction for Paypal to operate in Sri Lanka. (BS)