Digital payments: Govt to announce awards from Sunday

New Delhi: Asserting that promoting digital payment is an integral part of the government’s overall strategy to weed out black money and corruption, the NITI Aayog on Saturday said the government will launch awards under the Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana in 100 cities from tomorrow which will be spread over 100 days. The first draw of the Lucky Grahak Yojana will offer a cashback of Rs 1,000 to 15,000 consumers every day for the next 100 days and will be launched on December 25, 2016 in New Delhi, the government’s premier think tank said in a statement. To create awareness in different parts of the country, the event would be followed in 100 different cities across India over the next 100 days until March, it added. The NITI Aayog said that by providing monetary rewards for undertaking Digital Transactions made with Rupay cards, AEPS, UPI Apps and USSD, these schemes attempt to attract general public and facilitate significant behavioural change among public. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Minister of Electronics & Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad will inaugurate the first draw in Delhi. Winners will be selected on a daily and weekly basis under the Lucky Grahak Yojana and weekly basis under the Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana respectively, leading up to a mega draw on April 14, 2017, whereafter the scheme will be reviewed for further implementation. With the goal to ensure easy and user-friendly methods of digital payments, the government has recently announced a slew of incentives to encourage general public to move from cash to digital platform. A scheme had also been launched to improve supply of cards and PoS machines in rural areas. NITI Aayog has been tasked to undertake a comprehensive campaign on advocacy, awareness and co-ordinate handholding efforts among general public, micro enterprises and other stakeholders for digital payments. Noting that it is expected that large sections of the population would be able to shift from cash-based to digital platform, the government’s think tank said that in the long term, such a mass movement is expected to shift large sections of the consumer and producer sections which was hitherto in the informal sector to the formal fold of the economy.