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Just too prompt

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A friend of mine in Trang province asked in a chat group if she should register on PromptPay. Many senior people in her community, she said, have been approached to apply for the service since they will be able to receive the state’s living allowances faster and more conveniently.

In the past month, banks have been vying to persuade government officials, welfare recipients, payroll clients and digital users to sign up to the money transfer service under the national e-payment system.

All the answers from friends in the Line messaging group have been “no”. Some said they even are not clear what PromptPay is or what the advantage is, so it’s better to wait and see. I, too, think that we need not be an early adopter for new services that we do not have full confidence in.

Finance minister Apisak Tantivorawong insisted that personal privacy will be protected but signing up for PromptPay using your 13-digit ID card number has raised concerns. He said that banks will have to protect other information stored on the card, though he hasn’t explained how. We haven’t heard detail about the security standards.

On the good side, PromptPay should facilitate the process whereby senior people receive monthly living allowances via banks. They will be able to check their accounts online.

But what about people who don’t have a bank account? According to the World Bank, about 20% of adults over the age of 25 in Thailand do not have a bank account. This covers more than 10 million Thais. A lot of elderly people, especially in rural areas, have never had a bank account and they prefer to get their allowances at the Subdistrict Administrative Organisation, or the Municipality, by themselves.

It is not just only those who don’t have a bank account who are wary. For those of us who have more than one account, we are still uncertain about PromptPay’s security system, or an earlier version called AnyID.

So far, most of the 15 commercial and four state-owned banks have opened pre-registration for the service, while official registration began on July 15. One of my friends who already registered for the service said he decided to do it because the bank offered him a lucky draw for an iPhone, but he was later disappointed that another bank offered a better free-gift deal.

It’s now a competition period among banks to acquire customers because one registered PromptPay account can be linked to a maximum of four numbers — one ID card and three mobile phone numbers — and these numbers must not be linked to any other account.

The government states that the PromptPay system will let people transfer money online to recipients who hold accounts at different banks free of charge for all transfers of up to 5,000 baht, and the fee is small for a higher amount. The big issue is that, in case of payment errors due to the system, or if the system has been hacked or infected with malware or viruses, consumers will have to shoulder the risk themselves.

The PromptPay service has been too hastily approved. The state should educate the public more extensively and the system itself should be intensively tested.

In the future, PromptPay is planned to cover electronic payments and receiving personal income tax rebates, living allowances and other state welfare and it will allow the Revenue Department to plug all e-payment transactions into its data system to boost tax-collecting efficiency. The overall objective is promising, and should be beneficial to the nation if it helps decrease corruption.

But I think that most people are not ready yet for the service as cyber security is still a point of debate.

I do agree with Dr Sutee Tuvirat, an expert in medical information security, who pointed out that the urgent implementation of a national e-payment system within five years not only risks violating privacy rights, but is also against the basic rights of the citizen.

The government should make it the right of citizens to choose their own payment methods, whether cash or digital.

 

This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.


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