KUALA LUMPUR: Like it or not, the digital economy is coming.
This was what Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail had to say about the reluctance of certain traders to embrace the e-wallet system.
He said the ministry had been helping traders’ transition to cashless transactions.
“Whether we like it or not, the digital economy is coming. The government will help players adapt so that they are well-prepared and well-equipped to thrive in this new economy.
“We will step up efforts to educate, train and encourage traders to adapt to the cashless economy,” he told the New Straits Times yesterday.
The New Sunday Times recently highlighted the reluctance of small-scale traders, such as hawkers, sundry shop owners and food truck operators, to adapt to the new system.
The NST asked Saifuddin several questions after Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng decided to proceed with a plan to conduct a social impact study only after the government’s three-month-long RM30 e-Tunai Rakyat campaign ended.
One question was whether the ministry had carried out social impact surveys on the impact of e-wallets and the cashless drive on the grassroots economy.
The NST also asked the ministry if it had gauged the response of the elderly prior to the campaign.
The ministry provided a statement that did not address these issues.
The ministry said it had roped in about 370 hawkers and petty traders from Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor and Penang to use the e-wallet platform through empowerment exercises and it hoped to expand the exercise nationwide this year.
The programme was expected to take off in the second half of the year in Melaka, Perak, Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak.
“The ministry can also carry out a more effective campaign with e-wallet service providers’ cooperation,” it said.
The ministry acknowledged that it received complaints from hawkers and small-scale traders on the lack of incentives offered to them in the e-wallet drive.
Many had told the NST that this was why they rejected the system.
Lim had said the government’s RM30 incentive aimed to stimulate spending through the e-wallet system.
He said the cashless drive was expected to inject some RM1 billion into the economy.
The government had allocated RM450 million for the initiative under the 2020 Budget.
E-wallet service providers are giving incentives to users who register with them.
On Friday, Touch ’n Go eWallet said it had 7.3 million registered users, with 125,000 active merchants registered.
It said it experienced a tenfold growth in the number of users of the app since e-Tunai Rakyat was launched last Wednesday.
GrabPay said the number of its users had increased six-fold.