Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Representatives ofMobiFone and Vietnam Multimedia Corporation (VTC) have proposed the Ministry ofInformation and Communications (MIC) to consider scratch card payment fordigital content services.

The proposal comes after the businesses of bothoperators and multimedia companies have taken a hit.

At a regular meeting with MIC on June 5, VTCchairman Luu Vu Hai said the halt of scratch card payment for digital contentservices had greatly affected its business. Its five-month revenue and profitwere only 38 percent and 33 percent of the yearly targets, respectively, partlydue to restricted payment methods, he said.

According to Hai, VTC is trying to overcomedifficulties in payment services on its own, but without policy support fromthe management authority and the approval of scratch card payment, the digitalcontent industry will still be in the back foot.

Tran Manh Hung, chairman of the Vietnam Postsand Telecommunications Group (VNPT), which manages mobile phone operatorsVinaPhone and MobiFone, said due to the ceasing of scratch card payment fornon-telecommunication services, VNPT’s May revenue had dropped by 4 percentagainst the same period last year while the five-month revenue this year fellby 10 percent.

MobiFone’s general director Cao Duy Haisuggested that the management authority allow the use of scratch card to payfor digital content services as well as work out measures to solve thedifficulties faced by businesses in providing services.

In April, major mobile phone operators,including VinaPhone, MobiFone and Viettel, announced a temporary halt ofscratch card payment for digital content services.

The move came after the security authoritybusted an online gambling ring worth nearly 9.6 trillion VND (422 million USD),of which some 9.3 trillion VND were made through pre-paid telecom cards andgame cards.

Pham Hong Hai, Deputy Minister of Informationand Communications, said in principle, the ministry had no problem allowing theuse of scratch cards for telecommunication and non-telecommunication services.However, after the online gambling incident, the issue was subject toreconsideration, he said, adding that the use of scratch cards fornon-telecommunication services was under the management of payment services ofState Bank of Vietnam.

He affirmed that the ministry did not prohibitthe use of scratch cards for payment, but without clear legal regulations forpayment related to services outside its scope of jurisdiction, networkoperators must consider scratch card payment in accordance with the existinglaw.

Nguyen Duc Trung, head of MIC’s Department ofTelecommunications, said SBV’s divisions had recently coordinated with hisdepartment and other management authorities to come up with the best solutionsinvolving the use of scratch card payment for non-telecommunications services.

Network operators and digital content companiesare asked to jointly study and propose solutions based on the managementexperiences of other countries, Trung said. 

In May, many online gaming businesses complainedthat by stopping scratch card payment, their revenues had dropped between 50and 65 percent, while small businesses lost up to 90 percent of their revenueas they did not have enough resources to develop a separate payment channel.

The three largest operators –VinaPhone,MobiFone and Viettel – also said their sales of scratch cardsplummeted by 80 percent after the halt. - VNA