Dr. Amunugama calls for authority to regulate national payment and settlement system

A meeting was held recently at Hataraliyadda under the chairmanship of the Minister of Special Assignments Dr. Sarath Amunugama to review the progress of development projects in the Galagedara-Hataraliyadda area. At the end of the meeting, responding to the media, the Minister took time off to explain matters relating to new developments relating to the national payment and settlement system of the country.

The Minister pointed out that a large number of monetary transactions take place today without the use of cash. Credit cards are used sometimes even to pay taxi fares. There will be a time when coins and currency notes would have completely disappeared. There should be someone to regulate these cashless transactions. Otherwise there can be a lot of abuses. This is what the Government intends to do – to set up some regulatory authority. At present the proposal is to give this regulatory power to the Ministry of Finance. This is only a proposal yet.  In this connection the Minister also referred to the possible role of ICTA. He said that the necessary technology will come through ICTA because the relevant technology comes from the area of ICT. There are payment systems like ‘Total Pay’, ‘Clear Pay’ and so forth. What they do is to provide the technology for the payments. However no decision has been taken yet regarding private sector participation in the proposed national payments and settlement system. In any case regulatory power is distinct from the provision of technology.

In regard to the regulatory authority also there is no final decision yet. The Central Bank has also a claim. Once a final decision is taken it will come to Parliament through a Bill for setting up the necessary regulatory mechanism.

Anyway the cashless society is coming. We have to be ready for it.