The Vietnamese government aims to fully integrate the online payment function on the national public services portal by September 15, aiming to ensure convenience for the people and businesses in realizing public services, according to Mai Tien Dung, minister of the Government Office.

Minister of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung. Photo: VGP.

Since its launch on December 9, 2019, the portal has seen over 61 millions of visits and over 16.5 million applications under processing, said Mr. Dung at a meeting on September 9.

Meanwhile, the portal started providing online payment function since March. As of September 7, over 11,000 online payment transactions have been made, in which around 4,000 transactions were recorded in July and August with an average transaction value of VND5 billion (US$215,400) per month.

This showed a major improvement in the payment services, as well as huge efforts from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and other commercial banks in supporting the people and businesses, stated Mr. Dung.

According to Mr. Dung, the government targets to provide at least 30% of online public services at advanced stages of 3 and 4 out of the 4-scale level in 2020, therefore, the issue of online payment is essential.

Ngo Hai Phan, head of the Government Office’s Administrative Procedure Control Agency, informed 45 out of 63 provinces and cities, seven ministries and state-run Vietnam Electricity (EVN) have completed connecting their respective online payment processors into the national public services portal.

Meanwhile, four banks, including Vietcombank, Vietinbank, Agribank and BIDV, and four intermediary payment service providers (VNPTPay, Ngan Luong, Momo, Payoo) have also completed the integration process to ensure smooth operation of the payment system via accounts from 38 out of 46 operational banks in Vietnam.

Currently, the portal offers online payments for (i) fees and financial obligations related to administrative procedures; (ii)  payment of social and health insurance premiums; (iii) payment of administrative fines for non-compliance with road traffic regulations; (iv) payment of taxes; (v) payment of the electricity bill.

Statistics revealed 56% of users in the portal used the online services function in the portal to pay social and health insurance premiums; while 23.6% used it for paying administrative fees and  18% accessing it for paying fines.