Penza, 20 April 2016. PenzaNews. The canceled production of new universal payment cards that will reportedly stop being issued in January 2017 will not have any significant downsides as the project did not gain significant popularity in the Penza region, Andrei Kostin, Assistant Minister of Industryin the region, head of the Ministry’s Information Support Department, told PenzaNews on Wednesday, April 20.

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“Let’s take the card issue statistics. There were 1,006 cards issued in 2012, with 855 cancellation requests,” he said, adding that some people shun from using any additional identification measures.

“2013 – 1,002 cards issued; 2014 – 1,005 cards; 2015 – 675. The current year – 32 cards,” the assistant minister added.

According to Alexei Kostin, originally the universal payment card system was seen as a new opportunity-opening way for users; however, some of the functions ended up not being used.

“We registered 313 facts of payment in 45 medical institutions, but the hospitals are rather slow at using this opportunity to register patients,” he pointed out.

The head of the Information Support Department added that the card project in the Penza region progressed rather slowly.

“So we will not be harmed too much when it shuts down,” Alexei Kostin stressed.

Describing the funds used to issue the cards and install the card infrastructure in the region, the assistant minister did not name the exact sum, but stressed that all expenses were obligatory for the region as per the federal legislation.

“It was not us who decided that, just like it was not us who would cancel the universal cards,” the official said.

Alexei Kostin himself admitted that he was not fast enough to register a card of his own, but welcomes the introduction of e-pasports that will use the current universal card infrastructure.

“Having so many registration papers at hand is outright impossible. We need to have the insurance ID card in paper, the TIN in paper, the passport in paper. We have several credit cards. While having a single e-passport like they plan to do it would be very good. […] That would be very convenient – it’s always at hand,” – the assistant minister concluded.

A universal card is a plastic chip card that contains the information about a citizen, his electronic signature and a bank app. Among other things, it can be used for registering for social and state services and paying bills.

The federal coordinator and operator of the card project is the company “UEK.”