Panel for sops to boost digital payments

NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary standing committee plans to ask the Union finance ministry to incentivise digital payments across platforms and even for so-called merchant transactions in a move that could provide another boost to electronic or cashless payments.

The panel, a lawmaker said on condition of anonymity, will rec- ommend that transactions on digital platforms (phone, e-wallets, credit card) should also be eligible for incentives that are currently available only on BHIMbased applications. This person added that it will also ask for the incentivisation of transactions other than the payment of insurance premiums and fuel purchases that are currently eligible.

The recommendations, finalised in August, will come in the panel’s latest report on India’s transformation towards a digital economy. The report also assumes significance as cashless transactions hovered between 2.041 (February) and 2.224 billion (May) in the past 6 months without much growth.

After the demonetisation of ₹500 and ₹1,000 currency notes was announced in late 2016, the government cameup with a number of steps to incentivise digital payments including cash prizes, waiver in convenience fees and merchant discount rates.

While the panel appreciated such steps, it now wants incentives to also cover bulk transactions in the business to business (B2B) sector. The latest suggestion of the finance panel also comes as the government plans to launch a pilot project for cashback incentives on Goods and Services Tax (GST) payments if the payer users Rupay cards or the BHIM app.