Ahsan H Mansur, former governor of Bangladesh Bank, has called for the removal of existing merchant fees on all digital transactions including Bangla QR. To popularise the cashless idea, such transactions must be made fee-free, he said, with a charge of 10 paisa possibly imposed in stages later.
Ahsan H Mansur made the call at a workshop organised by the research organisation Policy Research Institute (PRI) in Banani, Dhaka, on Thursday morning.
The event, on instant payment systems, had as chief guest Md Ezazul Islam, director general of the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM). PRI chairman Zaidi Sattar chaired it.
“The 1 to 1.15 percent fee that now exists on digital transactions could be given by the government as a subsidy,” Ahsan H Mansur said. “Because in India and Pakistan there is no fee on such transactions. So we should make this fee zero.”
The former governor suggested funding the digital transaction fees from the money allocated for remittance incentives. In his view about 10,000 crore taka a year is spent on remittance incentives, and a few thousand crore taka of that could be given as a subsidy for digital transaction fees to popularise them.
In his address as chief guest, Md Ezazul Islam said 10 taka more has to be paid on digital transactions because of the 1 percent fee, and that he believes the fee should be reduced.
PRI will carry out a survey on how much remittance currently comes through informal channels, which will also examine why expatriates send money by other means. PRI research director Bazlul Haque Khondker and director M A Razzaque discussed the survey.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report