Commerce requested two years to transition to a digital ruble

The Ministry of Industry and Trade and retail chains are not ready for the transition to the digital rouble. In its response to the bill on the start of settlements in this currency in retail, the ministry asks for a transition period of two years.

The head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Market Anatoly Aksakov in late October sent to the government a bill on the use of universal QR in Russia. "Izvestia has familiarized itself with it. The document, among other things, obliges the trade to provide customers with an opportunity to pay for purchases with digital rubles. Such an obligation for large federal retailers should come into force from July 1, 2025. Further, depending on the revenue - 30 million rubles or 20 million rubles - companies can get a delay of several years.

The explanatory note to the project says that this approach can reduce the costs of retail chains. Now the difference bears the cost of acquiring - when using terminals to pay with cards from each purchase, this link can be eliminated when using the digital ruble.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade considered such promptness unnecessary, follows from the response of the agency to Anatoly Aksakov (available at Izvestia). The point is that such a term may create risks for trade when business starts to connect to the necessary infrastructure. So far it is impossible to assess them to a proper degree, as there are still no rules for the operation and functioning of the digital ruble, the department's response said.

In order to streamline all the processes, time is needed - a transition period of two years, the ministry believes. This will allow to finalize the software, make changes to information systems if necessary, as well as to conduct test trials and train staff, the Ministry of Industry and Trade emphasized in its review.

Read more in Izvestia's exclusive piece:

The hour of reckoning has not come: trade requested two years for the transition to the digital ruble