Datuk Seri Dr. Wee Ka Siong, president of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), said that the waiver (exemption) on fees or charges for DuitNow QR payments should be permanent, implying that users should not be charged fees for it.
“The profits of the banks are already very high. They should continue the waiver for DuitNow QR users, most of whom are small merchants who would receive cash payments if they did not use DuitNow QR,” said Dr. Wee on Facebook yesterday.
With the new price structure, Public Bank and CIMB have announced a waiver of the merchant discount rate (MDR) for vendors accepting payments via the DuitNow QR code platform. However for CIMB, they decided to postpone the MDR until the end of the year. For Public Bank, it will maintain and start waiving fees for QR payments starting October 1. There will be no fees for current and savings accounts, e-wallets, maintenance fee or API integration fees under the bank’s Enterprise Plan. The only exception is credit card transactions under the Enterprise Plan, which have a 0.25% charge.
Merchants will receive the payment made by their customers after the MDR is deducted, which is charged based on a percentage of the transaction value. PayNet said debit and credit card payments are subject to the MDR, and the MDR waiver for QR payments will no longer apply from November 1.
“As an incentive to promote usage during the introduction of QR payments in 2019, the MDR was waived. This was extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”—The Star
