He said the decision to lift the waiver on the merchant discount rate (MDR) for vendors was made by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).

Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said BNM governor Shaik Abdul Rasheed Abdul Ghaffour had explained the matter to him in a meeting yesterday.

“Let BNM carry out its duties.

“Right now, what’s important is that the low income groups are not burdened (by the lifting of the waiver),” he told reporters after opening the Postnormal Times Exhibition at the KL Jazz and Art Centre today.

He also said BNM will explain its decision in due course.

Anwar was commenting on Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd’s (PayNet) confirmation yesterday that vendors will be charged a transaction fee for payments received via the DuitNow QR code platform from Nov 1.

PayNet said the MDR was not a new or additional charge, but was waived to promote the use of QR payments when it was introduced in 2019.

It also said it not did not expect the prices of goods and services to be affected by the MDR, pointing out that purchases made with credit and debit cards already incurred the fee.

At least three banks have opted to extend the waiver, with Public Bank and Maybank opting to postpone the lifting of the waiver “until further notice”, and CIMB Bank maintaining the waiver until Dec 31.

Earlier, the Small and Medium Enterprises Association (Samenta) had called for the government to absorb the MDR, calling the lifting of the waiver a “regressive move” in turning Malaysia cashless.

Alternatively, Samenta suggested a lower MDR rate than what would be implemented from Nov 1, warning that merchants would otherwise go back to only accepting cash.

We are live on Telegram, subscribe here for breaking news and the latest announcements.