PayPal doesn’t fully support transactions for Sri Lankans. Yes, we can pay for stuff with Paypal, but we can’t receive money from others. This has always been a major problem for the country’s freelancers. Most clients prefer making payments via Paypal. There are several other options like Moneybookers, but none of them are as popular as Paypal nor are supported by most sites.
Indi wrote about this some time back. According to his post, the culprit is the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. You can send out as much as money you want but you can’t receive any. No inflows; only outflows. This is ridiculous.
Now there is an online petition in change.org demanding the restrictions for receiving money through Paypal be lifted. Initiated by Budhajeewa, the petition has received over 950 signatures as of this writing. The target is 1000, and will be increased most probably once this target is met. There is a Facebook group and a small site as well.
Please do sign the petition if you haven’t already and share the link with friends.
Hell yeah we need PayPal
Feb 01, 2016 (LBO) – The regional head of PayPal is to have discussions with Sri Lanka’s officials over freeing Paypal inward payments for citizens in the country, Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando said.
“Regional head of PayPal will visit Sri Lanka this Wednesday. He is scheduled to have talks with Central Bank Governor and Finance Minister about this matter,” he said.
Paypal is a worldwide payments system that evolved out of the US, where small payments can be sent to over 190 countries at the moment.
Full Paypal freedoms are available in most free countries but some nations, including Sri Lanka are yet to allow payments to be received and withdrawn via Paypal.
Sri Lanka has already freed outward payments by Paypal accounts, which can be linked to credit cards.
But to run a Sri Lanka based e-business selling goods, or to provide professional services abroad, a Paypal account must be able to receive money.
Small e-service providers – especially individuals – have been asking for the service. Many free countries in Asia, including Japan and South Korea allow full Paypal freedoms.