Hanoi (VNA) - Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has asked relevantbodies to report a pilot plan on applying new payment services to PrimeMinister before April this year.

Accordingly, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), in conjunction with otherrelevant bodies, must scrutinise and build up legal frameworks for themanagement 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 welfareprogrammes.

Earlier, the Prime Minister had approved a project on fostering the payment ofpublic services via banking.

Under the project, the Government targets to collect 80 percent of tax paymentsin cities and provinces via banks by 2020, while all State treasuries will havecashless payment devices.

The scheme also targets non-cash payments to be accepted by 70 percent of powercompanies, 70 percent of water companies, 100 percent of universities andcolleges and 50 percent of hospitals in major cities. Some 20 percent of socialwelfare payments will also be made via banks.

[Vietnam intensi💯fies non-cash payments🦩 for public services]

According to the SBV’s Payment Department, cashless payment is becoming a trendin Vietnam. Cash payment has decreased from 14 percent in 2010 to 12 percent atpresent, the department said.

It reported that 96.2 million cards have been issued nationwide, up 210 percentfrom early 2011.

There are some 60 organisations providing internet banking payment services and30 organisations providing mobile banking payment services.

The payment infrastructure has also been improved, as evident in the rapidincrease of ATMs and points-of-sale machines, up 47 percent and 300 percent,respectively.-VNA