A universal card payment system covering fare payments on Yangon's public transport system will be rolled out from April 2017 (Yangon Region Chief Minister)

A universal card payment system covering fare pay­ments on Yangon’s pub­lic transport system will be rolled out from April, the Yangon Region Chief Minister told a briefing of journalists late last month.

The payment system, to be called “Yangon Pay­ment Service”, will enable passengers to pay for fares on buses, water taxis, and trains using a card as well as shopping purchases at selected outlets, said U Phyo Min Thein, the Yan­gon region chief minister.

“The payment system will play an important role in the daily life of com­muters in Yangon. The system will enable a high volume of money transac­tions and will make it easy to monitor data about bus users for taxation man­agement,” he said.

The company tasked with making the cards and implementing the payment system will work with the Yangon Bus Ser­vice and local banks to al­low a smooth transition of payments, U Phyo Min Thein added.

The card system has been involved in limited trials on board the yellow buses of Yangon’s BRT system and the Yangon regional government is confident the new multi-use payment system will be better than those in other countries.

Under the new Yangon Payment Service sys­tem, cardholders must scan their card twice for journeys- when hop­ping on and hopping off buses, trains and water taxis- otherwise they will charged for the whole route, according to the Yangon regional govern­ment.

(Myanmar Business Today: http://www.mmbiztoday.com/articles/public-transport-card-payment-system-begin-next-month)

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