e_Paper, Wednesday, September 6, 2017

8
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2017
DT
News
VISA, MasterCard, Amex
take away Tk37cr from
Bangladesh in 4 years
• Tribune Desk
ECONOMY
Bangladesh must establish its own
payment scheme for local credit
and debit card transactions to prevent
the outflow of money to global
payment services, finance sector
insiders have said.
International payment services
like VISA, MasterCard and American
Express (Amex) earned about
Tk37 crore in charges for credit
card transactions from Bangladesh
between 2013 and 2016, as the
country does not have a national
payment scheme.
It is estimated that they will
earn an additional Tk12.92 crore by
the end of 2017.
These charges are not taken
from the card users directly; rather
they are paid by merchants who
use point of sale (POS) machines to
receive payments from customers.
“Bangladesh needs an electronic
payment service of its own to
help us stop the outward movement
of a huge amount of revenue
from the country,” said Khaliqdad
Khan, a certified smart card industry
professional (CSCIP) and adviser
of South Korea-based smart card
producing firm, Kona I.
“Introducing a national payment
scheme – similar to RuPay of India,
SAMA of Saudi Arabia and Elo of Brazil
– can help to reduce the outward
flow of revenues to a great extent.”
There are currently around
1,080,000 active credit cards in
Bangladesh, while the number of
active debit cards is 10,570,000,
according to sources at Bangladesh
Bank.
International payment services
charge 0.3% of the purchase
amount for each credit transaction
on POS machines, and 0.1% for
each debit transaction.
For online transactions via
e-commerce platforms, the charges
are even higher: 0.7% for credit
cards and 0.3% for debit cards.
“Besides counting charges for
each financial transaction, payments
have to be made to get
VISA, MasterCard and Amex certifications,
as well as their annual
renewal charges,” added Khaliqdad
Khan.
The central bank has taken an
initiative to launch a national payment
scheme in the future. Sources
said a policy would be formulated
to create a “base platform” to that
end.
SM Rezaul Karim, deputy general
manager of the Payment Systems
Department in Bangladesh Bank,
said chip-based specification will
be required for the implementation
of this initiative.
“Coordination among the banks
will be required to run this. It will
enable us to complete transactions
using our own channel,” he said.
“However, even when there is
a national payment scheme in
place, VISA, MasterCard and Amex
services will still be needed for
international transactions.”
Ashish Chakraborty, chief
operating officer of payment
gateway system SSL Wireless,
said Bangladesh is still not ready
to take up a national payment
scheme.
“The near universal acceptance
of (plastic) cards is yet to be
achieved so it is not implementable
straightaway. It will take 5 to
10 years to have a system like that
properly implemented and used,”
he said. •
This article was first published on
banglatribune.com
40 die at Barisal
hospital as most
medics enjoy Eid
• Anisur Rahman Swapan,
Barisal
NATION
At least 40 patients died at Sher-e-
Bangla Medical College in Barisal
due to a lack of proper treatment
over the Eid holiday as most physicians,
including the interns, went
on leave.
Sources said at least 224 patients
were forced to leave the hospital
during the three-day break which
started on Friday, while 24 people
alone had died on Saturday, the
main day of the festival.
Before the Eid vacation, the hospital
authorities had announced they
would continue to provide “uninterrupted
treatment”.
However, of the 10 doctors who
were supposed to be on duty at the
emergency ward during the holiday,
only three could be seen working.
The hospital currently employs
130 physicians, of whom 95 are
Muslim. Only 10 Muslim doctors
went on Eid leave with most of
the others being absent from work
without giving any prior notice.
In addition, there are 170 interns
including 25 non-Muslims.
Of them, at least 30 live in Barisal
town, but even then only half of
the interns turned up to work during
Eid.
Most of the 451 Muslim nurses
from the 735 total also took leave
over the same period.
Dr SM Sirajul Islam, director of
the hospital, denied there was a
manpower crisis during Eid.
“The patients did not have to
suffer much as we catered to them
well. I myself monitored the activities
of doctors, nurses and other
employees,” he said.
Dr Sirajul admitted to a shortage
of fourth class employees but described
the registering of 24 deaths
on Eid day alone as “quite normal”.
“Those who died were either in
a critical state or underweight newborns,”
he said.
The 1,000-bed hospital has
already been reeling from the
shortage of fourth class employees
- especially ayas, cleaners and
sweepers - and this deepened during
the Eid holidays. •
Hajj pilgrims to start returning today
• Ishtiaq Husain
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Biman Bangladesh Airlines will
start transporting Hajj pilgrims
back from Jeddah, Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia (KSA), today.
The first of the 139 flights carrying
Hajj pilgrims will land at Hazrat
Shahjalal International Airport at
6:10pm, followed by four flights today,
and will continue till October 5.
An additional 30 flights have
been arranged by Biman. Biman
was supposed to transport 63,599
pilgrims, but this year the number
increased to a total of 64,873 pilgrims
who travelled from Dhaka to
Jeddah.
Biman in a press release said
the baggage allowance for economy
class passengers is 46kg, while
business class passengers are allowed
56kgs. Individual suitcases
must not exceed 23kgs in economy
class and 28kgs in business class.
The maximum weight of cabin
bags has been set at 7kg.
Biman incurred a
loss of Tk44 crore
in revenue for these
24 cancelled flights
The press release also said passengers
are not allowed to carry their
own Zamzam water. Biman will
provide each pilgrim with 5 litres of
Zamzam water which will be handed
to them after they land at Dhaka
airport.
The national carrier operated a
COLLECTED
total of 187 dedicated Hajj flights
this year, with 24 of them eventually
cancelled because of a lack
of passengers. This was caused
by people buying airplane tickets
without obtaining the necessary
visa for their travel.
Biman incurred a loss of Tk44
crore in revenue for these 24 cancelled
flights.
Biman rescheduled regular
flights and reduced frequent flights
on routes such as Dhaka-London,
Dhaka-Muscat, Dhaka-Dubai, Dhaka-Abu
Dhabi, Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur,
and cancelled all of Dhaka-Doha
flights till August 26 to make
sure there was enough available
aircrafts to service the Hajj pilgrims.
The last dedicated Hajj flight of
Biman left Dhaka on August 28 carrying
418 pilgrims to Jeddah. •