Bank Indonesia Regrets The Application Of Minimal QRIS Transactions By Merchants

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA Bank Indonesia (BI) regrets the phenomenon of limiting the minimum value of QRIS transactions by business actors (mechants) to consumers. This was conveyed by the Head of the BI Communications Department Erwin Haryono.

"It is very unfortunate (the minimum QRIS transaction limitation)," he told VOI when contacted on Tuesday, September 12.

According to Erwin, the central bank actually opens up an area of lower limits for every transaction at a retail location. The reason is, the strategy is intended to accommodate more people in using virtual payment facilities.

"(Indonesian Bank) There are no such arrangements (about minimal transactions)," he said.

However, Erwin assessed that the lowest value rule was entirely the policy of each merchant. Moreover, there is no legal basis that prohibits the existence of minimal barriers from QRIS transactions.

"We cannot ban their business decisions," he stressed.

The editor himself had experienced this incident at a traditional restaurant with a modern concept because the transaction value was deemed insufficient, which was below Rp50,000.

Furthermore, Erwin revealed that BI has even opened limits on QRIS transactions to be bigger so that they can reach more user segments.

"Currently, the nominal limit per QRIS transaction is set at IDR 10 million per transaction. This limit has been raised previously from IDR 5 million per transaction to accommodate the use case of QRIS transactions with a large nominal amount, including local government transactions (for example tax payments and others)," he said.

"The nominal value of this transaction has taken into account the development of QRIS transactions in the community as well as aspects of risk management on the side of PJP (payment service providers)," continued Erwin.

Citing information released by Bank Indonesia, as of June 2023, the number of QRIS merchants has reached 26.7 million with a total number of QRIS users of 37 million. This figure has reached 82 percent of the total user target of 45 million this year.