Bharat SainiLast Updated on May 5, 2017 by Bharat Saini
The era of playing fraud with the system came to a sudden halt when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his historic announcement of November 8, 2016, declared the high values currency as null and void. The declaration came as shock to those who took the laws, rules and regulations for granted; but the honest citizens across the length and breadth of the country celebrated the unshackling of the system from scourge of black money. The dishonest and anti national elements who had been draining and depleting the resources by creating a bigger parallel black economy driven by the dirty money were caught napping with sudden invalidation of high value notes.
After the crucial decision, challenge before the government was to sustain the momentum and strengthen the belief of people in the system. In order to prevent the system from slipping back into the dark zone again, it was necessary to break the backbone of the tools which trigger the generation of dirty wealth. The solution to the problem was found in popularizing digital transaction system by shifting the focus from more-cash to less-cash in financial dealings through the application of digital modes such as Rupay cards, AEPS, UPI Apps and USSD. The government went all out to encourage digital transactions and proposed to roll out a credible incentive mechanism through the launch of attractive and rewarding schemes to make it a mass movement.
NITI Aayog and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) have come out with two major Schemes – Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants. Under Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants; those who choose to allow Digital Transactions with Rupay Cards, Aadhar Enabled Payments System (AEPS), UPI Apps and USSD, in their day- to-day financial dealings will be entitled to beg Prizes for digital transactions conducted at Merchant establishments and will have the chance to grab weekly prizes worth Rs. 50,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs. 2,500 with mega draw to be held in April this year.
Incentives proposed for promoting digital platform in transaction are listed below:
- Discounts can be availed of by the customers if they pay through digital platform at petrol stations, for insurance premium, tolls at national highways and for railway tickets.
- On becoming part of digital payment transaction system, fees and charges levied by banks and various government portals are proposed to be abolished or reduced.
- Supply of cards and POS machines in rural areas has been enhanced and training session for the rural folk on individual level are being organized to make them aware of the use of the digital tools.
- Digi-Dhan Mela, an innovative idea has been conceived of by the government, to facilitate all stakeholders to encourage digital payment ecosystem, to extend cooperation to the masses in adapting to digital payments.
- Since the focus of the scheme is small transactions by the general public, incentives have been restricted to transactions within the range of Rs 50 and Rs 3000.
- Besides Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), digital transactions between consumers and merchants, consumers and government agencies are eligible for availing of the benefits of the incentive scheme.
Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana, that aims to reward those who adapt to digital modes in order to realize the goal of cashless economy, has been put in place keeping in mind that in India out of total population of 125 crore people, 75 crore prefer to use credit and debit cards in their financial dealings.
Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana has been launched along with Lucky Grahak Yojana. The objective is to encourage and drive the people towards adopting digital modes such as debit and credit cards, e- wallet, mobile technology, going in for online modes for clearing their electricity bills and other types of dues.
The more the people are discouraged from cash- driven dealings the less there are chance of people indulging in wrongful doings in matters of financial transactions. So winners will be those who top the list in transacting business -small or big- through afore-mentioned digital or electronic modes and – they are to be rewarded with attractive incentives in form of awards which can work as motivating force for others to join the bandwagon of digital transaction system.
The scheme is likely to fructify because, as many as 109 crore Indians possess Aadhaar, 50 crore people own internet and 35 crore people use smart-phones. Further, a total of 45 crore people are active users of debit and credit cards. Given these figures, it is now far easier for the establishment to inspire the people to join journey of digital and cashless payments.
Winners of the Lucky Grahak Yojana and the Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana are to be selected on the basis of a mega draw sometime in April 2017, in 100 different cities around India by holding weekly Digi-Dhan Mela, wherein 15000 people will be chosen every day for the awards. The major stakeholders of the digital payment ecosystem which have been roped in include banks, wallets, telecom service providers, other financial service providers; and UIDAI that will register its presence at these gala events and will also get involved in educating the masses in effectively using the digital payment mode on big scale. It will be for the first time that informal sector will be benefited from this electronic payment system which has hitherto been the domain of formal sector of economy.
The concept, at the core of the entire exercise is to bring about a catalytic shift in behaviour of the general public to abandon old habits and opt for new digital tools in their dealings so that ubiquitous corruption can be fought at the roots and by pulling the plug on the sources of black money. The goal is transform the society from cash user to cashless.
