Legal safety net for electronic transactions

IT: The Electronic Transactions Bill, approved unanimously by Parliament on March 7, was finalized in pursuance to a Joint Cabinet Memorandum of then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, Trade, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister and Science and Technology Minister.

The Cabinet of Ministers authorised the draft legislation to be prepared by the Legal Draughtsman's Department with legal and policy inputs from the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), ensuring that the draft legislation is in conformity with international standards, practices and requirements of IT industry.

The legislation will recognise and facilitate the formation of contracts, creation and exchange of data messages and other communications in electronic form, in Sri Lanka.

It enables to set up a Certification Authority and accreditation of certification service providers; and provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto".

"The Legislation also deals with the legality and the modalities to engage in electronic forms contracting, including the recognition of an offer and acceptance in electronic form, attribution of electronic records, acknowledgment of receipt by the originator of a communication," Jayantha Fernando, Legal Advisor to ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, which functioning under the President's Office said.

Electronic Transactions Bill is an important piece of legislation for the overall development of ICT, electronic commerce and e-government activities in Sri Lanka.

The Bill covers most issues usually covered under e-Transaction Legislation, except "consumer protection" issues, are generally addressed through separate legislation.

With the phenomenal growth of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Sri Lanka There is an increasing trend towards ICT based commercial activity, commonly known as e-Business or e-Commerce."

"We now see a newer phenomenon known as m-Commerce (mobile commerce), where ordering a pizza or booking an appointment with your medical specialist could be done via SMS".

"While we focus on technological developments through ICT development programmes such as the e-Sri Lanka Development Project, being implemented by ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, the importance of ensuring parallel developments in the Legal framework is essential," Fernando said.

"Many countries are striving to make Government more efficient and accessible to people through the use of ICT. This trend often referred to as e-Government, eventually means having Government services available online.

A wide range of activities such as registering a Company online or filing tax returns could be carried out online. New technology has enabled the use of Electronic Signatures to carry out these transactions in a secure manner," he said.