Cashless Bangladesh gets a boost

Bangladesh Bank yesterday took new measures to gear up for the "Cashless Bangladesh 2023-27" programme by offering charge-free transactions through Bangla QR to micro merchants.

Micro merchants were previously required to pay a 0.7 per cent charge for each transaction through Bangla QR, which is a quick response based digital payment solution.

Now, they are allowed to settle such transactions without any charge, according to a central bank notices issued to all banks and non-banks in the country.

A Bangladesh Bank official said if micro merchants like street vendors are compelled to pay the charge, then they might not show interest in using the platform.

And considering how a majority of micro merchants are underprivileged, the central bank has asked lenders not to take the charge and instead list it as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure, he added.

A quick response (QR) code is a type of barcode that stores information as a series of pixels in a square grid that can easily be read by smartphones.

Essentially, any smartphone with a built-in QR scanner can be used to scan QR codes through the camera to make payments whereas a proprietary code can only be scanned via a specific application.

A Bangladesh Bank official said a majority of banks, payment service providers and payment system operators initially did not show interest in embracing Bangla QR when the platform was introduced two years ago.

So, the central bank has recently taken several initiatives to popularise digital transactions.

The lenders, which have taken part in the Cashless Bangladesh program, will also be allowed to show other expenditures under their CSR allocation.

For instance, accommodation and transport costs can be considered as CSR expenses when officials of the lenders visit remote areas of the country to set up Bangla QR.

The central bank on March 19 said that micro merchants who have to maintain personal retail accounts will not have to keep any minimum deposit or face any account maintenance fee.

In November 2020, the central bank allowed micro and underprivileged businesses to open personal retail accounts to bring millions of small traders into the digital payment ecosystem.