After the historic announcement of #Demonetization on 8th Nov , India witnessed an unprecedented shift in its behavior and attitude towards handling money. Though going cashless was the only option left in wake of less availability of cash in hand, people showed greater enthusiasm and maturity in adopting the big digital push.
What could not have been achieved in years of awareness campaign suddenly saw the light of the day and there was a gradual but positive shift in the habits of people. While we can still debate if the option of going for cashless transactions was forced on people but there is no denying of the fact that digital transactions have immense benefit for economy and thus for growth – the biggest agenda of Modi government. We all have been raising questions that while people are opting for cashless transactions in current situation but what happens after 30 Dec when sizable amount of money would have been pumped into the system ? Will people still opt for cashless means ? Won’t people revert back in their older habits of cash transactions ?
To answer all such questions and making sure that going cashless not only provides ease for people but also provides incentives , Arun Jaitley made some major announcements today. In my opinion these measures will give major boost to those who continue and adopt digital transactions. These measures were long due to incentivize people who wanted to opt for cashless transactions but the system was against them- both in terms of infrastructure , economics and also in the attitude of people.
Below are the key announcements done :
- For those using cards and e-wallets, Petrol and Diesel purchases will now attract a 0.75% discount.
- The government will provide 2 POS or Point of Sale machines for free to each village that has a population of over 8,000.
- Railways to give 5% discount on catering, retiring room on payment by digital mode
- All railway passengers who buy tickets online get free accident insurance cover worth Rs 10 lakh
- Monthly and seasonal tickets for suburban railways to offer 0.5% disc on digital payments
- Insurance bought online from customer portal of public sector companies will get 8% discount for life & 10% for general insurance
- Public Sector Banks will ensure that merchants don’t need to pay more than Rs. 100 per month as monthly rental for PoS terminals
- Digital transactions of up to Rs 2,000 will be exempted from service tax
- Highway toll will see 10% discount on digital payments
- NABARD will give Rupay card to people who have Kisan Credit Card