Vodafone Fiji Regional Chief Executive Officer Pradeep Lal has clarified that their agents around the country cannot charge more than $3 when customers want to withdraw cash from their M-Paisa platforms.
A number of people have contacted us and raised concerns that some shops are charging them as high as $40 when they went to withdraw their $360 government unemployment assistance.
He has also raised concerns that while people are struggling to put food on the table, there are some people who are trying to make money from whatever assistance they have received.
He says there is no point in receiving $360 for three months if $40 is taken by someone else.
When questioned, Lal says Vodafone is charging a fee of $3 when people want to withdraw cash from their M-Paisa wallet and no one can demand more than that.
He has also confirmed that people do not have to pay the $3 fee from their pockets because government is paying them a total of $363 and $3 will be deducted as the withdrawal fee.
Lal says people will still receive the full $360.
Vodafone’s Head of e-Commerce and Corporate Affairs, Shailendra Prasad says people will be able to utilize the full $363 if they just make cashless payments.
Digicel have also come out and said that they have waived all withdrawal fees and shops cannot charge their customers.
They are urging people to contact their customer-care if people are charging fees for MyCash withdrawals under the government funded unemployment assistance.
Around 220,000 Fijians have so far received their $360 cash payment under the Government's unemployment assistance scheme.
The total payout so far is $80.2 million.
Over 40,000 Fijians are expected to receive the payment in the coming days.
