People who use an Abu Dhabi government debit card to pay for services such as electricity and water will be able to link it to their bank accounts by the end of the year.
Currently, people using the e-Dirham card must periodically top it up with cash.
“The key benefit today is that you can conduct your government services online, but sometimes your card doesn’t have enough funds so you can fund the card and then use it,” Younis Al Khoori, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, said yesterday. “This is what will be added with the new system. The card will be linked to your bank account.”
He said that unlike most bank-issued cards, which charge anything between 2 per cent to 2.5 per cent per transaction, the e-Dirham card, which is co-branded with the credit card company Visa, will charge a maximum of Dh3 per transaction. Many payments for different services can be done in one transaction, he added.
The mechanism allowing residents to link their e-Dirham cards will be done through the country’s central bank, Mr Al Khoori said.
The current prepaid Visa card that e-Dirham issues was conceived in 2011 and replaced a government card, adding new payments that could be made for charges including Emirates ID cards, visa renewals and court cases. The first generation e-Dirham cards could be used only to pay for government services at specific ministries.
Revenue from the e-Dirham service increased more than 26 per cent to Dh15.2 million last year from Dh12m in 2013, the ministry said.
mkassem@thenational.ae
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