The State Duma will consider the bill on a unified QR code in January

By the end of January, the State Duma is to consider in the first reading a bill on a single QR code, Izvestia has learned. It will allow purchases to be made with the digital ruble: the document obliges federal retailers to start accepting a new type of national currency as early as July 1. This is stated in the papers of the Council of the State Duma, with which the editorial board got acquainted.

Back at the end of 2024, the head of the Committee on the financial market Anatoly Aksakov together with a group of deputies and senators introduced a bill to the State Duma on the introduction of a single QR code in the Russian Federation, with its help Russians will be able to pay for purchases with a digital ruble, it should be created by the National Payment Card System (NPC). The project establishes the basic rules of the new type of payment means in the country and also obliges large federal trade to start working with it.

The State Duma council paper says that the parliament has already set the responsible committee and also sent it to the government for review by January 16. In addition, the lower house council papers mention that the draft should be prepared for consideration in the first reading as early as January. The main author of the initiative, Anatoly Aksakov, told Izvestia that "tentatively, the document will be considered during this period." According to him, the Central Bank and the government are preparing to officially support the draft law and the new obligations for trade spelled out in it.

"Our initiatives are aimed at establishing equal conditions for all market participants, this can be achieved through the use of a single QR code. Now the large market participants have actually monopolized such a service as payment for goods by means of a code. It is arranged in such a way that a person uses only the development of a certain organization without resorting to other analogues. Moreover, some banks take a peculiar commission from trade for using their QR codes. The unified mechanism will allow retailers to save in this case also on acquiring", - he explained.

Meanwhile, the Duma Committee for Protection of Competition has already prepared a negative response to the project of their colleagues. In it the deputies criticized the proposal to transfer the creation of a single QR code to the NSPK. The Constitution of the Russian Federation "does not allow economic activity aimed at monopolization and unfair competition", the parliamentarians noted.

Read more in the exclusive material "Izvestia":

A figure in the law: the project on a single QR code will be considered by the State Duma in January