CMs’ committee on digital payments in favour of continuing incentives on cashless transactions

CMs’ committee on digital payments in favour of continuing incentives on cashless transactions Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday said there are plans to import one million PoS machines to enable cashless payments across India. Naidu, who is the convenor of the 13 member committee of chief ministers on digital payments, said that the committee would

recommend continuation of the incentives beyond December 31.

Naidu said the committee will present its interim report on digital payments movement to Prime Minister Narendra Modi within a week, while also planning a sustainable, long-term, policy to attract the majority in India to move to digital payments through providing incentives.

"Our focus is on providing more incentives for making digital payments a mass movement," Naidu told the media after the fourth meeting of the committee.

The government has given certain incentives post demonetization like waiver of Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on card usage till the year-end.

“Two major breakthroughs using existing infrastructure have been Aadhaar Pay and modified versions of USSD and UPI, and the two would be launched soon,”Naidu said, adding that the technology has also been significantly upgraded for a larger number of Indians to pay digitally.

“An app for UPI and interoperability of USSD and UPI has now been made possible which will be a major push for 600 million Indians to use digital payments,”Naidu said, adding that the committee is working with NITI Aayog to address existing constraints in connectivity, hardware and technical infrastructure to push cashless transactions.

During the meeting, a presentation was made regarding the best practices and learnings from other countries for a digital economy in India.

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who was also part of the meeting, tweeted, “We stressed on inclusion of all cooperative, regional banks and DCCBs in this integrated app to make it more beneficial in rural areas.”

NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya said IT industry body Nasscom, telephone operators and Niti Aayog have created a dedicated helpline - 14444 - for addressing all queries on digitial payments, which will soon be made operational.