7 May 2024 04:10 am Views - 377
Meanwhile, earlier in the day addressing a media conference Public Security Minister Tiran Alles maintained that VFS Global, the foreign company now responsible for handling on-arrival visas on behalf of Sri Lanka at the BIA, will continue to operate for at least 12 years.
He said that the proposal to transfer the new visa system to VFS Global was unanimously passed on November 23 last year without debate in Parliament following Cabinet approval.
“The government had made a policy decision to introduce separate visa categories. Sri Lanka previously only had a 30-day single arrival visa category. Therefore, we introduced several other visa categories,” the minister said.
He said that the 30-day visa was fixed at USD 50, however, when passing the said rate, the document was not included, and thus it was not added to the system.
Harin threatens to resign
Accordingly, the minister had told the Cabinet led by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, against the latest move and threatened to resign if new visa system continues without any changes.
“Starting from May 7th, a 30-day single-entry visa without additional charges will be available for $50 until our proposal for free visas for more than 50 countries is finalized. Until then, seven countries will continue to enjoy free visas as before,” Minister Harin said in a post on ‘X’.
“When the new proposal was introduced, VFS charges were not mentioned. Since it came to light, I have objected to the proposal,” he stated.
“It’s not surprising that the Opposition Leader wants to pin this on me rather than on the line ministry, which implemented this system while we were finalizing the proposal for free visas for over 50 countries,” Minister Fernando stated.
Meanwhile, Minister Fernando tweeted yesterday a letter circulating, purporting to be his resignation letter is fake, even he mentioned in his intention in Cabinet yesterday (6).
“Letter circulating isn’t true even though I mentioned my intentions in cabinet, of not wanting to be apart of the decision to increase any visa fees. Date of the letter is also one month ago,” he stated in a post on ‘X’.