Sri Lanka’s National Fuel Pass system: Tackling an economic crisis with digital public infrastructure

Digital public infrastructure (DPI) has immense potential to deliver inclusive, secure, and foundational digital capabilities for entire nations efficiently and fast. In other words, DPI can deploy national-scale digital services that meet citizens’ needs. A hyperscale cloud provides the cost-effectiveness, scale, and flexibility needed to meet the erratic and unpredictable demands that successful and widely adopted DPI usage can generate.

Having worked on DPI initiatives during my tenure at Sri Lanka’s Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), I’ve witnessed first-hand the potential of DPI to address critical national challenges.

In 2022, Sri Lanka faced its worst economic crisis since independence. A lack of foreign exchange meant a shortage of fuel imports which brought the country to a standstill. Citizens queued for days for rations of just 20 liters. This affected businesses, schools, medical-care provision, and access to food. Frustration over black-market fuel prices led to public protests.

The Sri Lankan government urgently sought a solution to equitably manage fuel distribution through systematic rationing, requiring rapid digital intervention.

The right team

Sri Lanka’s ICTA is the government’s policy-making body for digital transformation. It plays a key role in developing DPI: secure, interoperable digital systems based on open standards, that provide broad accessibility while aligning with national policies. These support rapid, large-scale rollouts of innovative, inclusive, essential public and private services—from healthcare, education, and financial systems, to transport access.

The success of DPI depends on interconnected, standards-based technology and strong collaboration across sectors to deliver practical solutions. In this case, the ICTA joined forces with the Sri Lankan government’s Ministry of Power and Energy to manage the planned fuel-distribution project from a public sector perspective.

Sri Lanka has a population of over 22 million, with a transport system relying largely on roads. To maximize the speed and impact of any intervention, we needed to establish public-private partnerships and collectively devise a scalable digital solution using existing infrastructure.

So, the two government teams engaged Dialog Axiata, the country’s largest mobile network operator, and MillenniumIT ESP (MIT ESP), a local technology solution provider, to develop and deploy a digital National Fuel Pass.

Aerial view of Colombo Lotus TV tower, and Sri Lankan capital, Colombo

Agile collaboration

The solution had to be intuitive, convenient, and accessible for users. The cross-sector project team agreed it would use citizens’ mobile phones and a quick-response (QR) code for real-time fuel allocation and quota management. This would require direct connections to core government systems, and an automated verification process.

The extended team built a working solution in three weeks. An agile approach to the software’s development involved rapid prototyping, followed by iterative improvements. The National Fuel Pass system was designed to integrate with the Lanka Interoperability Exchange (LIX)—Sri Lanka’s centralized data-exchange platform, which enables seamless integration of government services.

The National Fuel Pass system was integrated into the Department of Motor Traffic’s digital systems, and vehicle details were verified through registration information, which meant that each vehicle could access its designated fuel allocation fairly and efficiently.

The team chose to use Amazon Web Services (AWS) because it met security, scalability, and local-data management requirements for a rapid national rollout. This helped address data-security and compliance concerns, including the safeguarding of personally identifiable information (PII).

Scale and impact

The National Fuel Pass system attracted one million registrations on day one, quickly rising to 6.5 million (out of a total of 8.25 million vehicles active in Sri Lanka). Within a month, 93 percent of fuel stations adopted the system, processing more than 11 million transactions. In just a week, queues at fuel stations were reduced from up to three days (more, at the peak of the crisis), to five minutes.

Almost immediately, Sri Lanka achieved its primary goal of transparent and equitable fuel distribution. The digital solution automatically linked transactions to drivers and their vehicle registrations, which eliminated scope for fraudulent transactions, prevented hoarding, and curbed black-market activity. At the height of the crisis, fuel imports had soared in value to $500 million a month. The National Fuel Pass system, along with broader economic and policy measures, contributed to reducing these costs to $240 million.

The swift rollout, efficient digital mechanism, and automated verification delivered results without creating new manual work for government departments or fuel-station operators. Digitally managed fuel distribution also enabled real-time monitoring and analytics, which supported resource planning.

Global benefits

The National Fuel Pass project has been recognized as a successful DPI and a case study for other governments facing similar challenges. Because DPIs are, by design, based on open standards, their solutions are intended to be replicable. So, Sri Lanka’s approach offers valuable insights that other governments can study and adapt based on their unique requirements.

The project highlights the role of cloud infrastructure in supporting government digital transformation initiatives. The cloud supported an immediate solution to a national crisis, and offered the flexibility to scale down and turn off the facility when it was no longer needed.

Agility and responsiveness are critical in a crisis, and DPI, with the right governance and technological support, can enhance a country’s ability to respond effectively. Cloud infrastructure supported the project’s agility by enabling collaboration with relevant technology partners.

In this case, the Sri Lankan government was practically and culturally equipped to harness existing digital infrastructure, dynamic extended teams, and the AWS Cloud. A combination of strong teamwork, cross-sector collaboration, and cloud infrastructure enabled a rapid and scalable deployment within three weeks. The project is a clear example of the potential of DPI and the importance of digital preparedness.