Increasingly, Chinese toll booths are enabling drivers to pay highway tolls using the country’s CBDC.
The province announced that it has established e-CNY “tax payment points” in unmanned “electronic tax bureaus” and banks across the area. It disclosed that individuals and businesses had utilized these payment options and others to pay $254 million in taxes over the last year.
Moreover, since the inaugural e-CNY-powered land transaction in October, an additional 74 properties have been exchanged using digital yuan.
Push for a digital yuan
According to Fujian, the province started providing digital yuan relief loans to local enterprises in November of last year. Additionally, it has been employing the digital currency to procure carbon sinks for environmental enhancement initiatives.
Fujian reported that it has executed 14,700 e-CNY payments for carbon sinks since the launch of the program.
Read more: Chinese cities gives away $26.6M in Digital Yuan to drive adoption
According to the Global Times, around 200 events were organized and approximately 180 million Digital Yuan (e-CNY) were distributed as subsidies and consumption coupons in various Chinese cities during the 2023 Spring Festival holidays. The total value of the e-CNY distributed was over $26.6 million.
In Hangzhou, each resident was given an e-CNY voucher worth 80 Yuan ($12). The city also allocated 4 million Yuan (approximately $590,000) to boost holiday spending.
Fujian has announced its intention to further advance the adoption of digital yuan in the future. The province plans to concentrate on utilizing the CBDC in “smart contracts and supply chain financing.”
In the meantime, the central bank is aiming to demonstrate the digital currency’s capabilities in ongoing cross-border trials in Macau and Hong Kong.
Other cryptocurrencies, however, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, have been banned in mainland China since 2021. Following China’s ban, more than $50 billion worth of cryptocurrency left East Asian accounts to accounts outside the region, Chainalysis found.
