1 Million Passport Copies to Be Purchased By Immigration & Emigration

As a result of shortage of passport copies, alternate arrangements were made and foreign countries informed accordingly. However, the Public faced difficulty while undertaking foreign trips without the normal passport issued by the Srilanka government.

Epic Lanka private Limited is the supplier of passport copies to the department of Immigration & Emigration. The company had earlier informed the government that the stock of passports was gradually decreasing, and then the Ministry had submitted a Cabinet paper last November for procuring new stocks. But the Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure that implements the Electronic Passport Project had objected to it. Followed by this development a committee comprising of secretaries from the three ministries was appointed to look into the matter.

Subsequently, the Cabinet approved the assigning printing of passports to De La Rue, the company that prints the currency notes.

However Internal Affairs Minister S.B. Navinna told to the media, taking into consideration the delay that might occur, yesterday the Cabinet approved procurement of 1 million passports from Epic Lanka Private Limited, the former supplier.