It is the people’s wish that DuitNow QR fee be abolished, says Dr Wee

PETALING JAYA: It is the people’s wish that the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) for the DuitNow QR code service be abolished permanently, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

"I humbly appeal to the Prime Minister to continue bringing us good news when chairing the National Action Council on Cost of Living (NACCOL) meeting this coming Tuesday (Oct 3)," the MCA President said in a Facebook post on Sunday (Oct 1).

On Sept 29, Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) confirmed that a transaction fee would be imposed on vendors for payments received through the DuitNow QR platform and transactions conducted with credit cards effective Nov 1, 2023.

However, the 50 sen fee would be charged for transactions exceeding RM5,000 involving peer-to-peer fund transfers from one personal QR to another personal QR, not payments to merchants.

Dr Wee also listed a slew of reasons why the transaction fee should be abolished, including how abolishing the proposed fee would eventually benefit all stakeholders, including consumers, merchants and banks through the use of cashless payment.

This in turn will support the government’s digitalisation process.

"Ever since the implementation of cashless payment via DuitNow QR, Bank Negara is no longer required to print new notes and coins; this is certainly a significant saving.

"Banks also benefit from the costs incurred to prepare cash deposit machines and for ATMs to issue cash to consumers as well as for security purposes and the maintenance of cash flow," he said.

Dr Wee said last week that the imposition of the DuitNow charges taking effect from Nov 1 was wholly unfair to small businesses or roadside stalls without card payment facilities.

CIMB had decided to postpone the MDR until the end of the year, while Public Bank would maintain the waiver until further notice.

Maybank, on the other hand, said that the bank had not implemented any fees in relation to Duitnow QR and that this would continue until further notice.

Public Bank had communicated on its website that it would waive the following fees for QR payment acceptance, effective from Oct 1 until further notice.

It said merchants would enjoy fee waivers for categories such as payment acceptance via current and savings accounts, ewallets, and maintenance fee and API integration fee under the bank’s Enterprise Plan.

Credit card transactions under the Enterprise Plan would incur a charge of 0.25%.

The DuitNow QR service enables money transfers between banks and non-bank entities by scanning QR codes.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibahim said on Saturday (Sept 30) that the imposition of a transaction fee for payments made via DuitNow QR and transactions conducted with credit cards would not burden the low-income group in the country.