Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Photo : Collected
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday (1 November) said her government seeks to build a cashless society in a bid to reduce corruption, expedite development and ease revenue collection.
“When we will be able to build the cashless society it will curtail corruption. The development of the country will be expedited and the revenue collection will be eased,” she said.
The prime minister said this while inaugurating local currency card ‘Taka Pay’, first of its kind in the country, from her official residence Ganabhaban. She was connected virtually with headquaters of Sonali Bank, City Bank and Brac Bank.
Sheikh Hasina said that as an independent and sovereign country, Bangladesh’s financial system has to be independent and sovereign for reducing dependency on others. She put emphasis on data security of every holder of the newly introduced debit card.
“I hope that the security system of this network will be well-protected. We have to pay special attention to this. Foolproof firewall has to be there,” she said.
She said that this Taka Pay card will be a groundbreaking step for building the cashless society in Bangladesh.
“We will not be dependent on others. We will use our money in our country, we will try to connect this system with otheir countries. We must not be dependent on any single hard currency,” she said.
The card is be issued by state-owned Sonali Bank and privately-owned City Bank and BRAC Bank in collaboration with the central bank.
'Taka Pay' will provide the same service nationally through the use of 'The National Payment Switch of Bangladesh', an electronic payment platform operated by the BB.
Messenger/Disha
