<article>Myanmar central bank deputy governor U Set Aung has clarified that the move to revoke foreign currency holder licence was a step to prevent &#8220;dollarisation&#8221; and to support use of electronic payments.</article>

Myanmar central bank deputy governor U Set Aung has clarified that the move to revoke foreign currency holder licence was a step to prevent &#8220;dollarisation&#8221; and to support use of electronic payments.
“We are making a master plan for dedollarization by getting technical assistance from IMF (International Monetary Fund). We will let know once the plan is completed,” said U Set Aung.
Aung further added that the move was not to discourage businesses but only a step to prevent dollarisation.
He said, people can hold as much as $10,000 of cash in hand and also debit unlimited amount of dollar in the bank from a foreign currency account.
“In other countries, foreign currency cannot be transferred but in our country, can put any amount we want or can make transfers,” he said, adding that payment through electronic transactions would be further improved.
Companies in the tourism industry are encouraged to use bank transfer and use electronic transactions. He said, tourism companies will also be granted money exchange licence.
He urged local businesses to make transactions in local currency. or include a similar clause in the contracts.
Myanmar has approved the use of debit and credit cards through Myanmar Payment Union (MPU). The central bank is trying to expand the coverage of MPU cards in foreign countries.
He said, the use of MPU cards at specific restaurants or shops is not widely used.
Many businesses pay salaries using the MPU cards. However, the staff take those debit cards to the ATM machine to withdraw cash, which means the debit card is mostly used for ATM machines.
Using the card to pay for goods and services is not yet widely used because merchants need to pay 0.6 per cent on of the sales to the MPU. “We need to have cooperation from local businesses. We will try to communicate with MPU to reduce the price but merchants need to cooperate too,” said U Set Aung to encourage businesses and people to start using the electronic payment system.
The current telecom operators in the country, MPT, Telenor and Ooredoo, will also be granted permissions to start mobile money services soon.
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Myanmar central bank deputy governor clarified that move to revoke foreign currency holder licence to prevent “dollarisation” and support use of electronic payments.



Myanmar central bank bats for de-dollarisation, e-payments

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