Rs 340 crore bonanza to spur e-payments

New Delhi: With the country’s banking system failing to meet the soaring cash demand after denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8, the Centre has now announced giving away daily, weekly and even mega cash incentives totalling Rs 340 crore to promote digital payments, starting Christmas Day.

Announcing “Lucky Grahak Yojana” and “Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana”, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Thursday that both the schemes will cover small transactions between Rs 50 and Rs 3,000 to encourage every section of the society to move to digital payments.

Terming it a “Christmas gift” to the country, Mr Kant said the first draw will happen on December 25 and the mega draw on April 14, the birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar.

National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) will announce 15,000 winners of Rs 1,000 each for next 100 days, starting December 25.

There will be 7,000 weekly awards each for consumers and merchants.

“Focus of Lucky Grahak and Digi-Dhan Yojana is on poor, middle class and small businesses so as to bring them into digital payments revolution,” said the Niti Aayog CEO.

As per estimates, only 5 per cent Indians use digital payment modes.

For consumers, there will mega awards of Rs 1 crore, Rs 50 lakh and Rs 25 lakh. In case of merchants, it has been fixed at Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.

Estimated expenditure of the scheme to incentivise digital payments is Rs 340 crore, Mr Kant said.

Giving details on digital transactions post demonetisation of old Rs 500 and 1,000 notes, he said PoS transactions witnessed a jump of 95 per cent since November 8 (till December 7).

RuPay Card transactions were up 316 per cent and e-wallet 271 per cent, while both UPI about and USSD witnessed increase of about 1,200 per cent each.

All forms of transactions through UPI, USSD, Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AEPS) and RuPay cards will be eligible for lucky draws.

The Niti Aayog also said the scheme is not applicable for transactions done through private credit cards and e-wallets of private companies.