Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC and Sampath Bank PLC together announced the introduction of real-time, online payments to Sri Lanka Customs through their respective online banking platforms. Having received all necessary regulatory approvals, the two leading private banks are the first to go live with this service.

This announcement comes on the heels of the Sri Lanka Customs’ historic implementation of an online payment platform for Customs payments in partnership with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

Commercial Bank will be offering this service to its corporate and personal customers who have enrolled for COMBANK Online Banking. Sampath Bank will be providing this to Sampath Vishwa online banking customers.

Thus customers of the two banks will now have a convenient and seamless mode of making customs payments. Given their broad customer base, this move effectively connects the Customs’ online payment platform to a significant portion of individuals and businesses involved in imports and exports in the country. Furthermore, anyone can make payments, manually, to the Customs at all 229 Sampath Bank branches around the island, including the 10 Super Branches open till late in the night, 365 days of the year.

“Sri Lanka Customs’ launch of an online payment platform comes at a time when the country is seekingto trade more actively with the rest of the world. Lauding the authorities for this move, we are delighted to enable our customers to make customs payments, electronically, through COMBANK Online Banking. Doing away with the inconveniences they faced earlier, customers will now have a more convenient and secure means of making payments to the Customs,” said Pradeep Banduwansa, Head of Digital Banking, Commercial Bank.

“We welcome the launch of Sri Lanka Customs’ online payment platform at a time when the nation is striving to grow its trade volumes. We are excited to begin accepting customs payments, electronically, over our trusted online banking portal, Sampath Vishwa. We look forward to seeing our customers avail the convenience offered by this service to make hassle-free payments to the Customs. We are also pleased to note that both account holders and others can make these payments manually, over the counter, at any of our branches,” said Rajendra Ranasinghe, Assistant General Manager - IT Business Development, Sampath Bank.“With this, we have become the only private commercial bank in the country to accommodate online, real time payments to both Sri Lanka Customs and Sri Lanka Ports Authority.”

Powered by LankaClear’s LankaPay Online Payment Platform, payments made through these channels will be credited to Sri Lanka Customs’ bank accounts on a real-time and 24 X 7 basis using the LankaPay Common Electronic Fund Transfer Switch (CEFTS).