ECONOMYNEXT – A deal struck by Sri Lanka with IVS-GBS-VFS Global, a private contractor, is worth 840 million dollars over its 12-year lifetime, opposition legislator S M Marikkar said in parliament.
The firm was charging 18.5 dollars per visa and a 5 to 7 dollar ‘convenience fee’ on top of the government visa fee from tourists trying to enter Sri Lanka.
Marikkar said the VFS Global was placed to earn cashflows of up to 100 million dollars a year based on tourist promotion targets of the industry, over the contract period.
The firm would earn 35 million dollars in 2024, 43 million dollars in 2025, 49 million dollars, 56 million dollars in 2026, 62 in 2028, 68 in 2029, 74 in 2030, Marikkar said reading out from a document.
The group would earn 80 million dollars in 2031, 86 million in 2032, 92 million in 2033, 96 million in 2034 and 100 million in 2035 million.
VFS Global group stood to earn 840 million dollars over the period of the contract which was renewable every two years, Marikkar claimed.
The deal was awarded without a competitive procurement process, Marikkar told parliament Tuesday.
Public Security Minister Tiran Alles said the deal was done after a proposal was made by the company. Even if its was tendered, there would be no one to compete against it, he told reporters.
The VFS Global website had come under fire for not be user friendly and not as easy to use as the previous website operated by the Department of Government information.
The website gave a double entry visa for 50 dollars and the new one from the VFS Global site costs 100.7 dollars.
A government statement said Monday that a 50 dollar single entry visa would be issued soon.
Marikkar questioned whether VFS Global would get 10 dollars from the single entry visa.
(Colombo/May07/2024)