OREANDA-NEWS. August 08, 2011. Dorin Dragutanu, the National Bank President, said these measures are offered to be taken in the medium-term prospect to encourage cashless payments by means of bankcards and to increase their volume. He said most bankcard owners use their bankcards just to receive cash money, while the share of cashless payments remains insignificant, although the volume of such transactions keeps growing.

The NBM Governor said the share of cash in circulation in Moldova remains very big in comparison with Western states. In the NBM President’s opinion, the lack of cashless payments’ popularity in Moldova is explained by the considerable share of shadow economy and companies’ wish to hide their real turnovers and evade taxes.

They don’t hurry to implement the cashless payment systems, as it would make their activity more transparent for tax structures, entailing increase in tax payments. Dorin Dragutanu proposed to cut the income tax for companies that use cashless payments as one of the measures to support cashless payments by means of bankcards.

According to him, it might entail drop in the budget incomes on the first stage, but in future it will increase budget receipts at the expense of taxes. The National Bank President also suggested introducing the practice of collecting a commission for cash withdrawal from the card in Moldova, following the European countries’ example.

It would make cashless payments by means of the bankcard more profitable than cash withdrawal and payment by means of this cash.