In a bid to make Indian economy cashless, the Union government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has planned a series of steps to increase the awareness of people in this regard in rural areas. These include incentives for digital payments, day to day financial transactions like buying or selling goods/services, transferring money etc.
A PIB release said, “With a view to provide logistic support to the IEC activities- information, education and communication, holding camps for transiting to the digital mode of payment, the Government has undertaken a series of measures to provide incentives to the district administration which will give a boost to cashless digital payment systems across the districts, talukas and panchayats.”
According to the release, NITI Aayog has enlisted a series of incentives for the communication campaign for the district authorities and administration to promote the transition to the cashless digital payment systems. These include incentives for digital payments for day to day financial transactions like buying or selling goods/services, transferring money etc.
NITI Aayog will provide logistic support for outreach activities at the district, taluk and panchayat level in form of the seed money of Rs.5 lakh per district administration as a part of the communication campaign. The purpose is to enhance the seeding of Mobile and Aadhar numbers to the bank account, issue of Rupay cards wherever necessary, issue of PIN wherever necessary, downloading of app wherever necessary and finally achieving two successful transactions.
Moreover, the top ten best performing districts will be awarded the “Digital Payment Champions of India” award, while the first 50 Panchayats which go cashless will be awarded Digital Payment Award of Honour.
The five digital payment systems available in the country are – Unified Payment Interface (UPI), USSD, Aadhar Enabled Systems, Wallets and Rupay/Debit/Credit/Prepaid Cards.
The release further said that the NITI Aayog has collated and put up the entire sets of creative material – presentations/posters./FM radio spots/ films on its website dedicated to the digital payments – http://www.niti.gov.in/conetent/digital-payments. In addition, Common Service Networks are being mobilised to enlist the support of people and the merchants in going cashless.
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has announced cash incentive of Rs.100 for every merchant enabled to transact digitally. Two resource persons have been provided in each district collectorate to co-ordinate the CSE in each district.
NITI Aayog has also solicited the views of the districts in terms of the challenges being faced by them, the solutions thereof and the manner in which they can be supported.
