Electronic NIC from January: Ravi K.

27 October 2015 03:05 pm Views - 8415

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said yesterday that plans were afoot to issue electronic national identity cards to all citizens of Sri Lanka using the state of the art technology employed by developed countries of the world.

The Minister said that priority would be accorded to this programme at the national budget in consideration of its importance to the overall development strategy of the Government.

The programme was all set to get off the ground in January and the existing NIC would be converted into an electronic identity card.

“All relevant information of a child since birth will be included in the new ID and until he/she reaches the age of 16 and the identity card number will be assigned to him/her and at the completion of sixteen years and the new electronic NIC will be issued. This programme will be conducted by the Department of Registration of Persons in collaboration with the Information Communication Technology Agency,” the Minister said.

He said the Government had decided to embark on this plan for enhanced efficiency and convenience of all activities concurrent to the other development processes of the country and added that It would enable the maintenance of a single data base in respect of each individual and pave the way for the authentication of the identity with all the required details of the citizen.

Minister Karunanayake pointed out that the new ID card would make banking and other services easily accessible and could be used for easy verification of facts in issuing driving licences, passports and similar services.

It would also ensure the provision of relief services of the Government only to the deserving people and help to eliminate corruption and fraudulent practices usually associated with such services though a strict observation mechanism, according to the Minister.

Electronic identity cards were used in many developed countries, and our closest neighbour India launched a programme to issue electronic identity cards to its citizens five years ago. The same technology was used in the United States in issuing the social security card to its citizens.