Senate President Francis Escudero is backing the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas' (BSP) initiative to ditch service fees on electronic fund transfers, including personal transactions and payments to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
"I could only hope that the thresholds will be higher and the coverage wider to benefit more consumers and further expand the user base of digital payments," Escudero said.
The senator said that although transaction fees on fund transfers could be minimal, "the amount could be substantial if you add them up to a year's worth."
Citing regulator reports, Escudero noted that individual transactions billed by one firm could reach as high as P75, while some charge senders as much as P600.
"It's like a piggy bank. Maybe it's just coins, but you don't realize the size of the savings," he said.
Escudero said with the rapid growth in the utilization of digital payments and electronic fund transfers, "new and appropriate regulations must also pick up speed. These cannot be behind the curve."
The share of digital payments in total retail payment transactions in the country exploded to close to 53% last year, beating the BSP's expectations.
"The monthly transactions of purchased items will be more than 2.6 billion in 2023. That means about 3.6 million transactions are happening every hour. That's a snapshot of our migration) toward digital payments," he said.
Escudero said the logic behind the call to collect no fees on person-to-person digital money transfers for personal, family, or household purposes is "solid and unassailable."
"If we want to build our economy from the ground up, this is where these firms are, grassroots and community entrepreneurs, whose cost of doing business will be reduced to zero fees on digital payments," he said.
"Above all, this is the kind of incentive that will not cost the government a single centavo," he added.
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