New Delhi: In order to promote electronic transactions, NITI Aayog, the government’s think tank, has proposed weekly and quarterly lucky draws for people making digital payments.
“..it is necessary to ensure that electronic payments are adopted by all sections of the society. In view of the above, NITI Aayog has requested National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) to conceptualize and launch a new scheme to incentivize digital payments”, said NITI Aayog in a press release on Saturday.
The highlights of the proposed incentives scheme are as follows:
All consumers and merchants using digital payments shall be eligible
There are two levels of incentive amounts available under the scheme: Weekly lucky draw of the transaction IDs generated in that week, the contours of which are being finalized. And quarterly draw for grand prizes.
While designing the scheme the focus will be on poor, lower middle class and small businesses.
All modes of digital payments ie.USSD, AEPS, UPI and RuPay Cards- will be eligible.
For merchants, transactions made on the POS machines installed at their locations would be considered.
The detailed guideline of the scheme shall be unveiled soon. However, it would be ensured that all those who have used digital payment systems after November 8 shall be eligible to participate in the scheme.
The scheme would also provide for recognition of State Governments, their undertakings, districts and urban and rural local bodies who innovate for promoting electronic payment in their respective jurisdictions.
As per reports, the lucky draws will be conducted by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI),, an umbrella organization for all retail payments system in India. A Financial Inclusion Fund will be set up with a corpus of Rs 500 crore by the Centre, Reserve Bank of India and Nabard for the prize money.
The government on Thursday had announced incentives, including discounts on digital payments on purchase of petrol, railway ticket and insurance policies, to encourage cashless payments among the common public.
It also waived service tax for payments up to Rs 2,000 made through cards and has waived transaction fee for all payments made to central government departments and PSUs.
