On 22 June President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov held a meeting with representatives of the financial and economic sectors, who were authorized to undertake measures to increase the volume of bank deposits by residents as well as to restrict the cash element.
In the meantime staff of the taxation and revenue service oblige vendors to install credit card terminals in all retail outlets, even small ones. Needless to say, store owners have to purchase and install them at their own expense. The owners of small shops are especially unhappy with this requirement.
“My profit is too small to spend money on a credit card terminal which no one uses”, says an outraged small business owner.
According to observations by correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan”, residents do not use bank cards.Salaries transferred to an account are immediately withdrawn and practically no one has money on deposit.
Residents explain that this is because they have no trust in the banks.Many fear the persistent rumours that, due to the economic crisis, all or part of their money might be “deducted” for the benefit of the state or for the Asian Games.
“This would be tantamount to keeping cash in another person’s pocket”, one of the interlocutors told “Chronicles of Turkmenistan”.
Owners of small shops also prefer to take cash. Many do not know how to use PDQ machines or some vendors have terminals in case of an unexpected inspection.
Bank cards are accepted only in large shopping centres, hotels and restaurants but the prices are considerably higher than in the markets.
The markets, where the majority of residents buy groceries, are not equipped with PDQ machines.
Bank cards are now used by residents only for specific purposes: to make money transfers to kids studying abroad, during trips abroad or when ordering merchandise online.