Government plans pilot application of new payment services
Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has asked relevant bodies to report a pilot plan on applying new payment services to Prime Minister before April this year.
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Accordingly, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), in conjunction with other relevant bodies, must scrutinise and build up legal frameworks for the management and pilot application of the services.
The new payment services will mainly relate to public services, such as tax, electricity, water, tuition, hospital fees and social and public welfare programmes.
Earlier, the Prime Minister had approved a project on fostering the payment of public services via banking.
Under the project, the Government targets to collect 80% of tax payments in cities and provinces via banks by 2020, while all State treasuries will have cashless payment devices.
The scheme also targets non-cash payments to be accepted by 70% of power companies, 70% of water companies, 100% of universities and colleges and 50% of hospitals in major cities. Some 20% of social welfare payments will also be made via banks.
According to the SBV’s Payment Department, cashless payment is becoming a trend in Vietnam. Cash payment has decreased from 14% in 2010 to 12% at present, the department said.
It reported that 96.2 million cards have been issued nationwide, up 210% from early 2011.
There are some 60 organisations providing internet banking payment services and 30 organisations providing mobile banking payment services.
The payment infrastructure has also been improved, as evident in the rapid increase of ATMs and points-of-sale machines, up 47% and 300%, respectively.
