ArmInfo.The increase in non-cash turnover in the country's retail trade turnover is among the priorities of the State Revenue Committee (SRC) of Armenia in 2019 and is considered as the most important tool in the fight against shadow turnover. The Deputy Chairman of the Ministry Mikael Pashayan stated this to journalists on November 13.
According to Pashayan, almost all citizens of the Republic of Armenia have at their hands payment bank cards. They are accepted in almost all retail outlets. In this connection, Pashayan called on all citizens who are in solidarity with the financial authorities of the country in combating the reduction of the "shadow turnover" to use bankcards more often when paying for goods and services. In addition, according to the deputy head of the SRC, a technologically advanced country like Armenia should not give preference to paper cash.
In order to intensify the process of transition to non-cash payments by business entities, which can not refuse the consumer to make payment by "bank transfer" referring to the lack of communication with its own or cardholder's bank or for any other reason - the SRC plans jointly with the Central Bank to resolve the issue at the level of the law. As Mikael Pashayan explained to ArmInfo correspondent, having provided the corresponding legal imperative, which by virtue of the law will oblige a business to have a "working" POS-terminal, an economic entity will not be able to "avoid" the transaction by bank transfer.
According to the Central Bank of Armenia, the number of plastic cards in Armenia increased by 17.9% per annum by October 1, 2018, to 1.928 million cards, against a decline of 7.6% a year earlier. The y-o-y growth of the total volume of plastic transactions from 7.7% in the first 9 months of 2017 to 24.5% in the first 9 months of 2018 has sharply accelerated , reaching 1.4 trillion drams. In the total volume of plastic transactions, the share of non-cash transactions increased over the past five years from 9.5% to 21.2% (compared to the same period of 2013) excluding Internet transactions, amounting to 280.3 billion drams in the first 9 months of 2018 , which is due to a significant activation of Internet commerce and such effective measures to encourage non-cash transactions as CashBack (return of money from purchases) taken by banks. The y-o-y growth in the volume of non-cash plastic transactions, after accelerating the pace for 9 months of 2017 to 2.5-fold, slowed the rise for 9 months of 2018 to 47.8%.
As of October 1, 2018, there were 8476 POS-terminals in Armenia, of which 799 are located in the head offices and branches of banks. In y-o-y terms, the total number of POS-terminals increased by 17.1% or 1237 units, against a growth of 6.5% or 445 units a year earlier. It is noteworthy that for the first 9 months of 2018, the number of POS-terminals in banks and their branches increased by 12.4% or by 88 terminals, And in y-o-y terms - by 3.8% or 29 terminals (against the growth of 1.6% or 12 units a year earlier). Since 2015 the Central Bank has stopped publishing the number of trade / service points where ATMs or POS terminals are installed.