ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka will purchase up to 750,000 e-passport without electronic chips from a foreign firm which has been chosen to provide the international travel documents to locals, Public Security Minister Tiran Alles said.
The island nation is facing a shortage of passports as the authorities failed to secure adequate existing passports before switching to the new e-passports, government officials have said.
Thales DIS Finland Oy has been chosen through a tender process to procure 5 million electronic passports at $5.06 each. Alles said passports have been procured at $5.89 each from the earlier firm which has been chosen without any tender procedure since 2002.
“Originally, the new e-passports were to be issued from November. We have now advanced and we are getting the first set on October 20,” the Minister told reporters at a media briefing in Colombo.
“The company has agreed to provide up to 750,000 passports with a minimum of 350,000 in different stages. We will be getting them without chips because they are giving in advance.”
The island nation saw long queues last month outside the passport office as the existing empty passport books were not adequate to meet the current demand as thousands of Sri Lankans are leaving the country after an unprecedented economic crisis two years back.
He said the government asked the current supplier to provide additional empty passport books to face the current crisis, but the company had asked the government to purchase minimum copies of 500,000.
“We don’t need that much because we only need around 100,000,” Alles said.
The long queues are now controlled using the police and the government has been trying to eliminate exploitation from middle men who take an exorbitant fee to obtain a passport for average Sri Lankans, he said. (Colombo/September 09/2024)