Bangladesh Bank has been using various mediums like BFTN, RTGS, NPSB, Baruch, Bangla QR as paperless currency for the past few years. Based on that formula, the intention to introduce 30 percent paper currency by 2025 and 100 percent by 2031 has been announced in the proposed budget. It has made recommendations like increasing cashless transactions and digital banking to avail ITES facilities. However, the sector is not yet ready to implement this plan. For this, they are advised to adopt specific and targeted action plans.
Speakers conveyed these issues while speaking in a round table discussion on ‘Cashless Transactions, Challenges and Actions’ held at the Prothom Alo Conference Room in the capital’s Carwan Bazaar. Coordinator of Fitnec Society Fahim Mashroor presented the main article in the meeting. Highlighting several challenges in the case of cashless transactions in the article, he showed that, according to the data analyzed by Market Merchant, 54 countries are in favor of going completely cashless, while another 32 countries still want to exchange through cash. Meanwhile, the US, Canada, Russia, Australia are at the top among the countries with the most cashless transactions. The future world is moving away from cash and towards creating a cashless society. Discussions of the cashless economy are spreading beyond academic boundaries to practitioners. Bangladesh is no exception. But still, most of the customers are not ready for cashless transactions. He cited insufficient internet facilities, insufficient digital accounts of customers, availability of funds and above all non-availability of cashless transactions as these challenges. Moreover, he thinks that the closure of Electric Fund Transfer (EFT) in Bangladesh Bank itself on Friday and Saturday is also a big reason.
Besides, this former president of BASIS emphasized the strong coordination between National Board of Revenue and BTRC in building a cashless society. He showed in the presentation that the use of POS machines and the use of Bengali QR codes in the country is still insufficient. Transaction costs on MFS and cards are still high.
On Saturday,
Mahtab Ahmed, Managing Partner of Buildcon Consultancy; Chief External and Corporate Affairs Officer (CECAO) of bKash, Sheikh Md. Monirul Islam; MasterCard Country Manager Syed Mohammad Kamal; Talikhata Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shahadat Khan; Priya Pay CEO Zakaria Swapan; Dhaka University Institute of Information Technology Director Professor Mainul Hossain; Additional Managing Director Nagad Mohammad Aminul Haque; BRAC Bank DMD M Sabbir Hossain; Prime Bank DMD Nazim Chowdhury; Jamuna Bank Director Redwan Ansari; Mutual Trust Bank Head of Digital Banking Khalid Hossain; Wesley Head of Operations Navid Sarwar and others spoke at the meeting held on Saturday. Prothom Alo Digital Transformation Chief Coordinator Munir Hasan conducted the event.
Daily Prothom Alo and Fintech Society jointly organized the meeting with fintech companies Wesley and Talikhata.
