Moldovan citizens abroad can pay taxes and utilities in Moldova through the Paynet application.
The application was developed by the Moldovan company Paynet with the support of the TEKWILL project. The principle of the application is simple: users can register by the phone number of the country in which they are located. Transactions are protected with a one-time password, which is sent via SMS and without which money transfers are not confirmed. According to the developers, shortly after the launch, the application was downloaded by about 90 thousand of our fellow citizens from Moldova, Italy, Germany and other countries. More than 5.6 thousand compatriots from the diaspora have become its users, and about 100 thousand lei have already been transferred through it. “Using the application, citizens of Moldova, being anywhere in the world, can pay bills for telephone, utilities, Internet and television, beauty and health products, pay loans or pay taxes. This can be done safely, online, without going to the bank, right from home, ”said Paynet CEO Calin Greadcenco. It is worth noting that the application is one of 10 private initiatives implemented at TEKWILL (a project implemented by the National Association of IT Companies) under the “Initiative to Encourage Private Sector Participation” supported by USAID and Sweden. As part of this initiative, IT companies were provided with financial assistance of $ 25 thousand (equivalent to half the cost of each initiative). According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 25% of families in Moldova receive money from relatives working abroad, and almost half of them are completely dependent on remittances. In 2019, personal transfers amounted to $ 1.3 billion, and most of all funds came to Moldova from Israel (18.3%), Italy and Russia (14% each). Experts argue that it is difficult to estimate the real amount of remittances, since some citizens prefer to send money informally - by minibuses, with friends, neighbors, etc. This year the number of people using wire transfers has increased due to a pandemic that has halted international transport. The new Paynet digital application will allow Moldovan citizens to carry out financial transactions wherever they are, directly from their mobile phones. This, among other things, will improve the diaspora's access to online trading services. // 08.12.2020 — InfoMarket.
