Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation Bimal Rathnayake has announced that commuters will be able to pay bus fares using bank-issued credit and debit cards on buses equipped with ticket-issuing machines with effect from 30 November 2025.
The Minister revealed this while delivering a statement in Parliament today (08).
“It’s a well-known fact that people are being cheated through bus tickets, which is the main reason the bus industry in Sri Lanka is not financially viable,” he said, adding that therefore, the bus operators are struggling to earn a sufficient income.
The Minister highlighted that there had been a strong demand from private bus owners to introduce a card payment system and that although many had attempted to create transport cards, and the process had been complicated.
Therefore, Ratnayake mentioned that by 30 November 2025, it is expected that passengers travelling on buses equipped with ticket machines would be able to purchase their tickets using any bank card accepted in Sri Lanka.
Ratnayake also explained in Parliament regarding the delay in the issuance of new vehicle number plates.
Responding to a question, the Minister stated that 165,512 requested vehicle number plates had not been issued by September 30, 2025.
The Minister conceded that there is a delay in the issuance of vehicle number plates.
“There is a longer delay in issuing vehicle number plates than we planned. The new vehicle number plates contain 07 special security features. We handed over the testing of these 07 features in Sri Lanka to the University of Moratuwa. They took about three months. And they said they could only do 06 of them. Therefore, we have had to seek international assistance to conduct the testing of the 07th. That is why this delay has occurred. The efforts made to increase the security aspect has impacted this,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation Bimal Ratnayake said that the issue of issuing new driving licenses will be resolved by the October 18.
