By: Staff Writer
August 15, Colombo (LNW): SLT-Mobitel, Sri Lanka’s telecommunications giant, is still waiting for necessary actions from various stakeholders to bring the online visa system back into operation, despite two weeks having passed since the Supreme Court ordered a return to the previous visa processing system.
This followed the Court’s decision to abandon a controversial outsourced visa arrangement.
On Tuesday, SLT-Mobitel Chairman A.K.D.D.D. Arandara sent a follow-up letter to the Department of Immigration and Emigration (DIE) Controller General I.S.H.J. Ilukpitiya, stressing the urgency of the situation. This letter was a follow-up to an initial communication sent on August 7.
Arandara informed the DIE that SLT-Mobitel had restored the Mobitel ETA Front-End System on its servers. However, for the system to go online, several immediate steps from the DIE and other relevant parties are required:
Informatics Ltd. needs to resume the backend services that were in operation as of April 16, 2024.
Sampath Bank PLC and Nations Trust Bank PLC must provide the same IPG services that were available on April 16, 2024.
The network configuration must be restored, including the re-establishment of the domain “eta.gov.lk” to SLT-Mobitel’s servers as it was on April 16, 2024.
Any additional facilities that were available as of April 16, 2024, must also be re-implemented.
Arandara reassured the DIE in his second letter that once these requirements are met, SLT-Mobitel can restore the ETA Front-End System within 24 hours. He further assured that the company’s contact center would be ready to handle any queries related to the system once it is back online.
The delay in restoring the visa system has caused significant disruption in the travel and tourism industry, leading to confusion among potential international visitors.
Sri Lanka originally shifted to an outsourced visa processing system on April 17 after awarding a controversial contract to a consortium that included GBS Technology Services and IVS Global-FZCO, among others.
However, after eight fundamental rights petitions were filed, the Supreme Court on August 2 ordered a return to the previous system. The outsourced arrangement had imposed service and convenience fees, the legality and rationality of which were challenged.
The Court’s interim orders sought to maintain the previous status quo, preventing any service or convenience fees from being charged until a final decision is made.
The petitions named 28 respondents, including the Public Security Minister Tiran Alles, 17 other Cabinet Ministers, the Controller General of Immigration and Emigration, and the companies involved in the outsourced visa processing.
This situation has sparked widespread concern, as the new visa process was seen as a violation of the law and principles of natural justice, lacking transparency and competitive bidding. Despite the disruption, tourist arrivals in the first 11 days of August reached 73,373, bringing the year-to-date total to 1.27 million.
