Viral Sach: Is discount of digital transactions an illusion?

NEW DELHI: After the government announced discount and cashback on an array of services purchased through the digital mode, a message went viral on social media claiming that discount offered by the Centre in bid to promote less-cash economy is just an illusion. According to the viral message, the government is looting the people in the pretext of discount. "If you buy petrol of Rs 1000, you pay the same amount to the pump. Whereas if you buy petrol of Rs 1000 from a card (credit/debit) then you'll be charged Rs 28 extra as service charge," the message said. "Even if you get a discount of 0.75 per cent on the petrol transaction, you end up paying Rs 1020.50," it said. The message titled 'Jaitley theory of economics' claimed that the discount announced is an illusion as one would end up paying Rs. 20.50 more than the actual amount on card transactions of Rs 1000. It further said that the banks and VISA/Mastercard will benefit from the extra amount paid by the people. Are you really incurring loss on credit/debit card transactions? Before the demonetisation of higher currency notes by the government, maximun 0.75 per cent service charge and service tax was charged on debit/credit card transactions up to Rs 2000. While the transactions above Rs 2000 attracted up to 1 per cent service charge and 15 per cent of the service charge was taken as service tax. After the withdrawal of old Rs 500 and 1,000 banknotes, government waived off service charge on digital transactions of up to Rs 2,000 till 31 December. What the government says: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that credit cards and debit cards are two different things. A section of the society uses credit cards on which it avails the credit facility of 30 days. Hence the costing of credit card is different. The government has exempted debit cards from all the additional charges, while on credit cards only service tax has been waived off.