Lok Sabha Question No. 3902 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-24
Subject: Decline in Digital Transactions
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: C. N. JAYADEVAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED  QUESTION NO. 3902

TO BE ANSWERED ON 24 th   MARCH, 2017/ CHAITRA 3, 1939 (SAKA)

## DECLINE IN DIGITAL TRANSACTIONS QUESTION

## 3902: SHRI C.N. JAYADEVAN:

Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government is aware that the number of digital transaction has come down after the cash crunch was eased since January this year;

- (b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor; and

(c) the steps taken by the Government to promote cashless economy?

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE

## ANSWER (SHRI ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL)

- (a)  & (b)      The data on payment system indicators such as Paper Clearing, National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) and National Automated Clearing House (NACH), registered growth in December, 2016 as compared to November 2016.  However, the same showed a decline in January 2017 as compared to December 2016.
-  Immediate  Payment  Service  (IMPS),  Unified  Payment  Interface  (UPI)  and  Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) recorded a growth in January 2017 and December 2016 as compared to November 2016.
- Card transactions at Point of Sale (POS) registered growth in December 2016 as compared to November 2016.  However, the same declined in January 2017 as compared to December, 2016.
- Pre-paid Payment Instrument (PPI) - considerable growth in January, 2017 and December, 2016 as compared to November, 2016.
- (c ) In order to attract general public and facilitate significant behavioural change among public towards digital transactions NITI Aayog had launched two major schemes - Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants. 12,72,290 consumers and 70,000 merchants have won prizes for digital payments made through AEPS, USSD, UPI and RuPay cards as on 22 nd March 2017.

To incentivize the States/UTs for promotion of digital transactions, it was decided that Central assistance of Rs. 50 crore would be provided to the districts for undertaking Information, Education  and  Communication  (IEC)  activities  to  bring  5  crore  Jan  Dhan  accounts  to  digital platform. The fund allocation is based on proportion of Jan Dhan accounts of all States/UTs. Under the scheme an incentive @ Rs. 10/- is provided for every individual who has transited to digital payment  mode  and  undertaken  at  least  two  successful  transactions  by  any  of  the  five  digital payments modes viz: UPI, Rupay / Debit / Credit / Prepaid Cards, AEPS, USSD and E-

Wallets. NITI Aayog has so far released an amount of Rs 15.06 crore to 533 Districts as first installment.

In addition to above following measures were also taken to promote less cash payment :

-  Unified  Payment  Interface  (UPI)  based  Bharat  Interface  for  Money  (BHIM)  App  which supports remittance transactions both push and collect was launched.
-  Approval  has  been  given  for  introduction  of  revised  architecture  of  Unified  USSD (Unstructured  Supplementary  Service  Data  )    platform  (*99#)  USSD  2.0  version.  This integrates UPI based transactions for USSD users through any type of handset.
-  In principal approval has been accorded to National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for launch of pilot for the Aadhar Pay Payment mechanism, which will enable the merchant to  accept  payment  from  customers  using  their  Aadhar  number  and  biometric  data  to  be authenticated by UIDAI.
-  In-principle approval has been given for launching the National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC)  system,  which  uses  the  Radio-Frequency  Identification  (RFID)  tags  for  vehicle identification and toll calculation; the toll will be automatically deducted from the prepaid accounts linked with the respective RFID tag.
-  In order to facilitate wider acceptance of card payments, the following special measures for debit card transactions (including for payments made to Government), has been introduced for a temporary period between January 1, 2017 and  March 31, 2017 ;
- i. For transactions upto ₹ 1000/-, MDR has been capped at 0.25% of the transaction value.
- ii.  For  transactions  above  ₹  1000/-  and  upto  ₹  2000/-,  MDR  has been capped at 0.5% of the transaction value.

With a view promote less- cash payments, the  Reserve Bank of India has been releasing its Vision for Payment and Settlement Systems in India on its website since May 2005. The latest Vision document titled 'Payment and Settlement Systems in India: Vision-2018' has been released on its website on June 23, 2016. The Vision-2018 aims at building best of class payment and settlement systems for a 'less-cash' India. The broad contours of Vision-2018 revolve around 5 Cs - coverage, convenience, confidence, convergence and cost. To achieve these, Vision-2018 will focus on four strategic initiatives such as responsive regulation, robust infrastructure, effective supervision and customer centricity.

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