Govt announces no charges upon ATM card usage in supermarkets from January 1st

Good news for people as the government and the Association of Banks in Fiji have announced that there will be no charges when using ATM cards at EFTPOS machines around the country from 1st January next year.

This is in line with government’s initiative announced in the 2018‑2019 National Budget, where member–banks will be offering unlimited free EFTPOS purchase transactions for ATM access card holders. 

Chairman of the Association of Banks in Fiji Rakesh Ram says that this initiative will assist in terms of promoting cashless and paperless banking in Fiji and support a Green Society.

Ram says that a Debit Card allows to access funds in your transactional accounts to make purchases using EFTPOS so there is no need to carry cash.

Meanwhile, the member-banks also acknowledge government’s initiative to pay 50 per cent of the cost to purchase EFTPOS machines for small businesses. 

The Minister for Economy and Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says that the current fees is 40 cents per transaction and from 1st of January, there will be no fees charged.

Sayed-Khaiyum says the next agenda on their table is to reduce the fees charged for the merchants as well.

This will also enable all the banks to increase the number of EFTPOS machines in sub rural and rural areas to ensure that everybody has access to electronic transactions.