Statement to the Public
It has been brought to the attention of the Ministry of Power and Energy and the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of certain inaccurate news articles regarding the use of Personal Data collected for the issuance and management of the National Fuel Pass.
The National Fuel Pass System (“NFP”) is operated and managed by the Ministry of Power and Energy, with technical assistance from ICTA. The NFP was launched in order to facilitate implementation of a fuel quota allocation system for citizens in order to reduce the consumption of fuel, thus reducing importation costs during the economic crisis, while ensuring a convenient and easily-accessible solution to obtain fuel for citizens.
The NFP system also helps to manage a crisis, hitherto never experienced in the country.
Furthermore, the NFP system provides the Ministry and its stakeholders’ transparency and visibility to manage the fuel distribution supply chain in a more effective and efficient manner.
Any Personal Data provided by the public online through the Registration process located at fuelpass.gov.lk is processed only for the purpose of facilitating the use of the NFP System, which has been established by the Ministry of Power and Energy. The data collected is processed by the Ministry or on behalf of the Ministry to prevent fraud, by cross-referencing the vehicle number with the chassis number or the revenue license number through the Department of Motor Traffic. The data is used only for verification purposes through an Application Programming Interface (API) which only verifies the data to offer the NFP service. No data is taken away from the Department of Motor traffic by either the Ministry or ICTA.
The Ministry of Power and Energy, together with ICTA is taking all necessary steps to maintain and manage personal data collected, in an effective and secure manner. The data is solely used to validate information provided by users and manage the QR system and for no other purpose whatsoever, and the Ministry and ICTA have taken steps to ensure compliance with the Personal Data Protection Act No:09 Of 2022.
