Smart Nation Getting people to use cashless payments
We now have more than 20 platforms offering cashless payments. This is too fragmented. 

We need a universal cashless payment system that is as universal as cash. It should be used by all customers and merchants. 

To achieve this goal, the universal system must meet the following goals:

a) It must be easy to use.
b) It cannot be confined only to consumers who have a mobile phone and knows how to use an app.
c) It should be low cost so that retail outlets, hawkers and other merchants will accept it as readily as they now accept cash.

The Tap Pay platform described here meets these goals. 

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a) It uses a payment card, similar to EzLink or NETS card that consumers find easy to use. 

b) The merchant can use a mobile phone or tablet as the device to process the transactions. The tablet with a inbuilt NFC reader is available for less than $300.  

c) The transaction cost can be as low as 2 cents per transaction, as it uses a technology similar to AliPay or Wechat Pay.

For these Tap Pay system to be successful, it should be endorsed by the govt in Singapore. The govt can give financial support by subsidising half of the cost of the tablets, so that the merchant need to pay only $150 for the tablet. 

There will be a big improvement in national productivity, as the merchants do not have to incur the time and expenses of handling cash at each transaction (and giving change), and banking in the cash each day.

I hope that the people in charge gives serious consideration to the Tap Pay platform. 

Tan Kin Lian
 

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