ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s main opposition has called for a parliamentary investigation into tourist visa fees charged by a private contractor, questioning what are the actual costs of operating the service to justify such excessive charges.
A contractor called IVS-GBS and VFS Global is operating the website which is directly linked to the Department of Immigration giving it the opportunity of make excessive profits technically known as ‘rents’ by virtue of operating a monopoly.
Billions of rupees could be charged from tourists over the next year through the additional fees, based on targeted numbers.
“Regarding the VFS Global matter, what [is the] justification to pay monopoly rent of around 18 billion rupees for the next 12 months at the USD 25.77 total fees per visa?” opposition legislator Harsha de Silva, who is also the chairman of the Committee on Public Finance questioned in an x.com (twitter) post.
“Who specified the terms of reference? What is cost of service? What options were reviewed?
The parliament must immediately investigate.”
After the visa application platform shifted to the firm, a 50-dollar visa went to 75 dollars, with a 18.5 dollar fee per shot on top.
There is said to be another 5 to 7 dollar plus ‘convenience fee’ depending on whether the visa was for South Asia or rest of the world, which is not initially disclosed to tourists.
The travel trade says the IVS-GBS and VFS Global website inconvenient, there are no language options, it is asking for unusual data like twitter handles of tourists, made the process longer with OTPs, and an easy-to-use-bulk application facility has been replaced by a more tedious one where everything has to be re-entered.
Based on the targeted 2.3 million tourists for 2024, the private company stands to make about 42.55 million dollars (about 12.7 billion rupees) and a further 12 to 13 million dollars (4 to 5 billion rupees if the ‘convenience’ fee of 5 to 7.27 also goes to them.
But it is not known on what basis the fees were decided and what the actual costs of operating the website is where the tourists themselves have to upload the data.
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Tourism Minister Harin Fernando told reporters Friday he had no knowledge of the visa fees, though a cabinet paper was approved for the change.
When the Public Security Ministry brought the paper, he may have been abroad, he said acknowledging that as a cabinet minister he bore collective responsibility.
The fees charged from the tourists through the monopoly website are much higher than the gazetted prices.
As result it is also not clear whether the gazette was correct, or the fees are legal since the website is a monopoly and the final price is higher than the gazetted number.
Key travel trade associations have asked for Presidential intervention warning that Sri Lanka may miss the 2.3 million target if the complex website is allowed to operate and fees much higher than what is charged by East Asian competitors are continued.
ONLINE COSTS: A survey of competitors shows that Sri Lankas’ visa fees which were already high, have jumped up with the shift to private contractor.
(Colombo/May04/2024)