BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 23
By Fidan Babayeva – Trend:
Non-cash payment solutions in Azerbaijan are becoming more and more popular, the volume of cash transactions is rapidly decreasing, yielding to electronic payments, the State Tax Service under the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy told Trend.
According to the tax service, the decision on the installation of POS-terminals was made by the government back in 2012.
“However, over time, entrepreneurs aren’t yet fully ready for an extensive introduction of POS terminals. Previously, a massive distribution was restrained by the relatively low popularity of cashless payments among the population, especially when making purchases for small amounts. But currently, more and more people use plastic cards and, accordingly, due to the lack of terminals, they often face inconveniences,” the service noted.
The service also emphasized that the provided opportunity to refund 15 percent of the value-added tax (VAT) will certainly increase the interest of citizens to actively use non-cash payments when buying goods and paying for services.
“The VAT refund toolkit, when purchasing using payment cards and paying in cash can greatly encourage the population to use non-cash payments. Moreover, if to remind all the previous initiatives of the state, which yielded a positive result for both business and the end consumer, it is difficult to explain the low readiness of entrepreneurs on the installation of POS-terminals,” the service said.
“This initiative has significant positive aspects. It specifically motivates to development. Also, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) don’t need to invest and spend time to use technologies that are widely available now,” said the service.
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