Lok Sabha Question No. 3626 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-08-08
Subject: Digital Transaction of Cash
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: E. T. MOHAMMED BASHEER

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3626 TO BE ANSWERED ON 8 TH   AUGUST, 2018

## DIGITAL TRANSACTION OF CASH

3626. SHRI E.T. MOHAMMED BASHEER:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state the steps taken by the Government for digital transaction of cash in various sectors, sector-wise?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

The  steps  taken  by  the  Government  for  Digital  Transaction  of  cash  in  various sectors as per inputs from Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), the nodal ministry for digital transactions are:-

Government  of  India  has  been  working  with  various  stakeholders  including Ministries/Departments/State Governments/Banks to promote digital payment transactions to make it more convenient for the citizens. A dedicated DigiDhan mission was set up with an aim to promote digital transactions. Digital payment App 'BHIM-Bharat Interface  for  Money'  was  launched  on  30 th   December,  2016.  Government  has  taken following initiatives to encourage digital transactions in the country:

## 1.  Expansion of payment acceptance infrastructure:

-  As per the budget announcement for FY 2017-18, Banks were allocated a target to deploy  10  Lakh  additional  Point  of  Sales  (PoS)  terminals.  Against  this  target, Banks installed 12.33 Lakh new PoS terminal. Currently a total of 33.20 Lakh PoS (till May 2018) terminals have been deployed in the country. Ministry of Electronics and  Information  Technology  (MeitY)  has  further  allocated  a  target  to  deploy  20 Lakh additional PoS terminals by the Banks in FY 2018-19.
-  BHIM  Aadhaar  Pay  enables  citizens  without  smart  phones  to  make  digital payments  by  using  biometric  authentication.  Around  5.56  Lakh  BHIM  Aadhaar PoS have been deployed by the Banks  till May 2018.
-  Bharat QR 4.0 with a provision of accepting QR based payment payments using UPI was launched on 10 th  August 2017. By 30 th  April 2018, 26 Banks have been made live on Bharat QR as acquirer and 38 Banks have been made live on BHIM UPI  PSP App. Till  May  2018,  Bharat  QR  was  installed  at  11.08  Lakh  merchant locations.

## 1.   Incentive Schemes

-  MeitY vide gazette notification No 6(19)/2017-DPD-1 dated 27 th  December 2017 has  notified  the  reimbursement  of  Merchant  Discount  Rate  (MDR)  charges  on Debit cards/BHIM-UPI/BHIM Aadhaar Pay based transactions of value less than Rs 2000 to the Banks for a period of two years starting from 1 st  Jan 2018. The reimbursement of MDR is aimed to improve the adoption of digital payments by merchants specially the small and micro merchants.
-  'BHIM  Cashback  Scheme  for  Individuals'  has  been  launched  to  popularize payments through BHIM APP. The scheme have been modified and is operational till March 2019. The customer on BHIM app can earn an incentive up-to Rs 150 on 10 unique transactions over the BHIM app.
-  The  BHIM  Aadhaar  merchant  incentive  scheme  has  been  re-launched  and  the incentive has been increased from 0.25% to 0.5%. The scheme is operational 1 st April 2018 till March 2019. In this scheme merchant can earn an incentive up-to Rs 2000 per month.
-  To give impetus to the deployment of BHIM Aadhaar PoS devices, Department of Financial  Services  has  launched  a  scheme  to  provide  an  incentive  of  up-to  Rs 1800 to the Banks on the procurement of each BHIM Aadhaar PoS.

## 2.   Coordination with Banks

-  Digital payment transaction targets have been allocated to the Public and Private Sector  Banks  for  FY  2018-19  and  a  target  of  3013  Crore  digital  payment transactions has been set.
-  The performance of the Banks is also monitored and evaluated by MeitY through a performance scorecard and a Bank ranking system.

## 3.  Advisories to Ministries/Departments

-  Government of India has issued advisories to Central Ministries/Departments and States/UTs to improve payments acceptance infrastructure, enable the citizens to pay by a variety of digital modes such as Internet banking, mobile banking, and mobile applications etc. including use of BHIM, integrate on-line payment portals with BHIM/UPI/QR-code/Rupay Card, printing of QR code on bills, incentivisation of digital payments and publicity and creation of awareness about digital payments among citizens.

## Publicity Campaign

-  Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology  has  initiated  the  publicity campaign through following mediums till now:
1.     Radio(Wireless Media)
2.     Newspaper(Print Media)
3.     Website(Digital Media)

## 4.   Monitoring, Analysis and Grievances

-  In order to create a platform for accurate reporting, monitoring and analysis of all digital  payment  transactions  being  carried  out  across  the  country,  GOI  has

developed a National Digital Payment Dashboard, which was launched by Hon'ble Minister  of  Electronics  and  IT  on  13 th   February,  2018.  The  same  could  be accessed at http://www.digipay.gov.in.

-  In  coordination  with  Department  of  Financial  Services,    necessary  instructions have  been  issued  to  on  board  all  Banks,  Payment  Banks  and  PPI  (Pre  Paid Instrument) Service Providers in the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) platform for becoming as convergence partners. Accordingly, almost 56   banks and other financial service institutions have been on boarded into NCH Platform. NPCI has also  been  integrated  as  a  convergence  partner  in  National  Consumer  Helpline (NCH)  platform. Thus  the  NCH  platform  is  live  and receiving  Digital  Payment related grievances.

## Additionally,  for  promotion  of  Digital  Payments  the  following  steps have been taken by the Department of Telecom: -

1. The Department of Telecom was assigned a target of 563 cr. transactions, which was distributed among the TSPs based on their market share.
2.  Incentives  were  given  to  promote  Digital  Payments -  The  Department instructed TSPs to incentivize digital transactions in the form of cash backs, extra talk time and/or extra data to shift customers from cash based to cashless mode.
3.  Advisories were issued to PSUs/TSPs/ISPs on Digital Payments for: -
- a.  Integration  of  their  system  with  BHIM/UPI  to  enable  interoperability  of applications.
- b.  On  boarding  the  Bharat  Bill  Payment  System  (BBPS)  to  enable  single window for all utilities.
- c.  Display of BHIM QR / BHARAT QR on its physical/e-bills, retail stores and touch points.
- d.  Circulation and Promotion of MeitY incentive schemes on BHIM and BHIM Merchant Pay to all TSPs/ ISPs for dissemination to their consumer base for wider circulation among the public.
- e.  Inclusion  of  Digital  Payments  topics  as  an  agenda  item  in  Consumer Advocacy group meetings.
- f. Advertisements of digital payments through SMS blasts, workshops, display of  incentives  at  touch  points  (like  YouTube,  hoardings,  visual  ads  etc)  of TSPs etc.
4. National level workshops were organized by DOT HQ and regional workshops across India were conducted in telecom circles.

## 5.  For the Department of Telecom :-

- a)  100% of government receipts to DoT have been enabled digitally via Non Tax  Revenue  Portal.  Collection  of  DoT  revenue  is  received  through  the non-tax revenue portal (NTRP) only.

- b)  Digital Payments constitute 99.3% of all payments from the Department of Telecom.

## 6. As a result of the steps taken in 2017-18 -

- a)  All TSPs have on boarded UPI.
- b)  TSPs promoted the mandated payment systems by way of SMS blasts issued to their subscribers without any charges.
- c)  All TSPs except one, offering postpaid services, are on BBPS
- d)  The target achieved on all digital transactions is 212 crore. by including transactions through mobile balances, the figure comes to 1246 cr transactions, which has exceeded digital transaction targets.

## 7 . For the current year 2018-19 additional activities will include : -

- a)  Launching e-leaning module for middle management level officers in conjunction with Niti Aayog at the National Institute of Communication Finance, Delhi.

b) Digital  Payments  Mission  For  Smart  Cities project  monitored  by  the PMO will be launched with special focus on retailers in  each  telecom  circle. Special   efforts are being taken by DoT HQ and field offices to collect retailer information,  digital  enablement  and  promote  digital  use  at  retailer  front  to ensure acceptance infrastructure is optimum for use of telecom customers.

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