Demonetisation day 30: Modi govt's 10 biggest cashless economy announcements

On the occasion of a completion of a month of the demonetisation process of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday sought to woo citizens towards digital transactions by announcing a slew of steps from cheaper fuel to travel insurance on railway tickets bought online. “We need to slowly cut out cash transactions and implement cashless economy, Dealing in cash has economic costs, so the government is promoting payment by credit, debit cards and e-wallets,” Jaitley said at a press conference in New Delhi. [caption id=“attachment_3137614” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Reuters file photo[/caption] Here are the 10 key points of Jaitley’s digital push announcements: • Announces 0.75 percent discount for people buying petrol, diesel via digital payment platforms. A total of 4.5 crore consumers buy petrol and diesel worth Rs 1,800 crore daily. In one month, digital payments have doubled to 40 percent. He said that the government expects fuel transactions worth Rs 2 lakh crore being carried out via digital mode. • Effective 1 January 2017, 0.5 percent discount would be available for people buying monthly seasonal tickets in the suburban railway networks through digital payment mode, starting from the Mumbai suburban railways. • Insurance cover worth Rs 10 lakh for travellers who book railway tickets through digital mode • A discount of 5 percent for transactions on digital payment mode for railway facilities like catering, retiring rooms has also been announced by the Union finance minister. • Buying general, life insurance policies from the websites of public sector insurance firms and using the same for paying premium would attract discounts of 10 percent and 8 percent respectively • NABARD will give Rupay card to people who possess Kisan Credit Card • Seeking to expedite the digital switchover, the government has decided to provide two point-of-sales machines each to villages with and over 10,000 population. A total of one lakh villages will be selected for the purpose across the country. • A 10 percent discount on digital payments for RFID or fastags for highway toll has also been made. • In order to ensure government departments and public sector enterprises go on a cashless path, the Merchant Discount Rate will not be borne by customers for public dealings • Public sector banks are advised that merchant should not be required to pay more than Rs 100 per month as monthly rental for PoS terminals/Micro ATMs/mobile POS from the merchants to bring small merchant on board the digital payment ecosystem.