GEORGE TOWN, July 11 – Penang said today it is officially recognised as a cashless state this year after achieving more than 95 per cent cashless transactions rate between January and May.

Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said Penang is the only state that has consistently achieved more than 95 per cent cashless transactions to become a cashless state.

"We hope to achieve 97 per cent cashless transactions rate by 2030,” he said in his speech at the state government’s cashless day campaign launch here.

He said between January 1 and May 31, all state departments and agencies have completed 5,490,371 cashless transactions, which makes up about 95.31 per cent of the overall transactions.

"The value of cashless transactions totalled to RM516,062,766.73 which is 65.07 per cent of the overall revenue collected,” he said.

Chow said the state started the cashless payment initiative in a pilot project at the Taman Tun Sardon market in 2020 as part of the contactless payment programme.

Following the success of the programme, 17 financial institutions and e-payment providers were invited to introduce e-payment systems in all public markets in Penang, he said.

"In line with that, the state government approved a policy, making it compulsory for e-payment to be introduced for all state agencies and departments in September 2020,” he said.

With the implementation of the new policy, Chow said all 23 state revenue collection departments use at least one e-payment service as a medium of collection.

He said the implementation of e-payment services have also indirectly increased the state’s revenue collection.