Page 57 - Ekonomija i Biznis_noemvri 2016.indd

ECРУOБNРOИMКYА
For countries in transition with a high level of corruption, the invalidated
anonymity of money will quickly and largely affect the reduction of
corruption
The possible national strategy for complete re-
placement of physical money with electronic denars
should include a precise plan for gradual issuance of
debit/credit/business/payment cards to the entities
who do not own ones, then security of POS terminals
for collection at all entities which perform collec-
tion, as well as issuance of e-vouchers for foreigners
who would stay in Macedonia for a short period of
time, that is, who would pass through Macedonia, of
course, if they do not possess some form of a payment
card.
With the increase of the number of payment cards
and the scope of transaction payment, then with the
mass use of e-banking, such process of digitalization
of money (denars) becomes irreversible here. Here
we would mention it in the direction of related sup-
port of this process and the performed GPRS of the
fiscal equipment (monitoring of the issuance of fiscal
receipts by the Public Revenue Office in real time), al- the use of electronic money, the traces for each form
though the act of payment in such a case is not com-
pulsorily electronic.
In the recent past it seems that Macedonia missed
the opportunity to accelerate this process with the
opening of the project “National Payment Card”
which unfortunately, for familiar reasons, did not
withstand the test of time.
According to the EU directive, electronic money
implies the monetary values expressed as it is de-
clared by the issuer and which is:
- stored in an electronic device,
- issued with a receipt of funds in an amount not
lower than the amount of the monetary value which
is issued and
- it is acceptable as a means of payment to third
parties different than the issuer.
The dematerialization of the national
currency denar – main prerequisite for
elimination of the tax evasion and signifi-
cant reduction of the grey economy
The main prerequisite for elimination of the tax
evasion and the grey economy is dematerialization
of money and having only electronic money in cir-
culation. We repeat that it is not a matter of inter-
national digital money, rather it is the official Mace-
donian currency denar which will no longer exist in
physical form. According to the author this regime
will completely eliminate the possibility for tax eva-
sion and will significantly affect the reduction of
corruption. The performed payment/collection with
digital denars is simultaneously realized on two ac-
counts, and if it is a matter of some form of taxable
turnover/revenue this payment is recorded through
the fiscal equipment as well. There is risk for the pay-
ment for sale performed by the company to be made
with e-denars to the account of the owner instead of
the account of the company. Such misuse will show
an increased income in favor of the account of the
citizen-the owner of the company, which should of
course be proven and easy to check by the competent
authorities.
The digital money will impose the need to intro-
duce payment card readers to the last sales point
where formerly there was a possibility for cash pay-
ment.
The exploitation savings, the increased security in
of payment and collection and demotivation of the
corrupt actors (the traces of the digital record can be
returned during deletion as well), but even more, the
elimination of the grey economy and the increased
budget revenues will be a great benefit which will
justify all efforts and spent funds for complete intro-
duction of digital money as an exchange for physical
money.
According to an article (from 2014), up to 2020 Nor-
way could completely stop using cash. Two years ago,
the cash in this country was used in only five percent
of the transactions, and the leading Norwegian fi-
nancial corporation Finans Norge considers that this
Nordic country by 2020 should “eradicate” the use of
cash.
We repeat that electronic i.e. digital money is a
monetary surrogate, that is, these money should also
be earned and transferred to their owner’s account so
that they can be further spent. Of course, it is a matter
of acquisition of electronic money also through the re-
gime of borrowing. In one word – e-denars completely
cover all properties of “ordinary money”: means of ex-
change, means of depositing excess money…
Still, digital money has one “bad” characteristic –
they invalidate the anonymity. However, is this char-
acteristic really bad? For countries in transition with
a high level of corruption, the invalidated anonymity
of money will quickly and largely affect the reduction
of corruption. The ones who will try to check this
claim will quickly face some form of legal inconve-
nience.
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