Sri Lankans to soon pay traffic fines online via GovPay

Sri Lankan motorists will soon be able to pay their traffic fines through GovPay, the government’s official online payment platform, according to a top official from the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA).

Harsha Purasinghe, ICTA Board Member and a well-known technology entrepreneur, announced that work is underway to enable this service, which is expected to bring significant convenience to motorists.

“We will see very soon that traffic fines can be paid through the platform as well. We are working on it,” he said at a recent forum in Colombo.

Government sources confirmed that ICTA has already completed the groundwork, and a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will be signed soon to finalize the initiative.

The Sri Lankan government launched GovPay to facilitate secure and hassle-free digital transactions for government-related services, such as taxes, fines, utility bills, educational fees, and other official charges. The platform aims to eliminate the need for physical visits to government offices, streamlining payments for the public.

Purasinghe explained that when the new ICTA Board was appointed, GovPay was seen as an easy project to implement. Although it had already been piloted, it was sidelined for unknown reasons. However, after extensive effort and coordination, ICTA successfully launched Govpay to the public with many new features.

“When we launched GovPay on February 7, 2025, we had 16 government organisations onboard. As of today, we have 25 organisations. Every week, we are adding new public institutions,” he added.

He also highlighted the challenges faced by the new ICTA Board, as many employees had left the entity, and it was on the verge of closure. However, the new government decided to reactivate ICTA through a cabinet decision.

Notably, the ICTA Board has been working without salaries, demonstrating their commitment to driving digital transformation in Sri Lanka.

“So, we actually got ourselves onboarded to a dead body. The people had pretty much given up. Most of them had left, and others were just waiting for the liquidation process to happen,” Purasinghe explained.

Despite these challenges, the dynamic ICTA Board, led by Dr. Hans Wijeyasuriya, managed to find solutions and push forward with digital initiatives. However, ICTA is set to be replaced by a new digital institutional framework under the new government.

The introduction of traffic fine payments through GovPay marks another significant step in Sri Lanka’s digital transformation, making government transactions more efficient and accessible to the public.

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