There are currently 6385 automated self-service terminals in the republic. Of these, 1799 units or 28.1% accept coins, reported "Asia-Plus" in the National Bank of Tajikistan.
NBT notes that payment terminals are installed and operated by 11 credit institutions and 4 bank payment agents. The regulator added that work in this direction continues. Residents of the republic complain that most payment terminals do not accept coins, the number of which has increased significantly in recent years. Payment system representatives say they are working to increase the number of terminals that accept coins.
The payment system "SSP Payvand", which has been operating in the payment acceptance market since 2011, told Asia-Plus that at the moment 15% of the terminals of this operator accept metal money.
«Work in this direction is underway, step by step the acceptance of coins will be established in all our terminals», – assure in "Paivand".
No interest
Earlier, a specialist from one payment system, on condition of anonymity, told Asia-Plus that operators are not particularly interested in installing terminals with accepting coins.
«Firstly, accepting coins requires more space in payment terminals, which is not available in current terminals. This means that they need to be freed from money more often, – says the specialist. – And this is extra expenses. If you force operators to accept metal money, you will have to add various additional mechanisms for sorting coins. It is better then to replace them altogether, but this is also unnecessary and, moreover, high costs».
In addition, according to him, coins also need to be stored somewhere, it is more difficult. It might be convenient for users, but not for terminal owners. And they, first of all, think about their benefits.».
Currently, there are coins in circulation in the republic in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 dirams, as well as 1, 3, 5 somoni.
Not the only problem
Refusal to accept coins by payment terminals is not the only problem for users: many terminals charge interest for customer service, but do not issue checks.
The country's legislation obliges terminal owners to issue customers a cashier's receipt, but this is not done by all terminals.
Moreover, many of them, contrary to the current legislation of the country, charge interest from customers at the time of payment.
Payment systems in accordance with the government decree are not entitled to charge interest for replenishing the balance of SIM cards of mobile phones.
The antimonopoly department periodically informs about fines of operators for illegal collection of interest, but the situation does not change – payment terminals charge 3% of the transferred amount to the balance of subscribers.
