News updates on digital payment promotion

Promotion of Digital Payments

During current financial year ie FY 2021-22, the total number of 8193 crore digital payment transactions have been reported till 20th March, 2022*. Bharat Interface for Money-Unified Payments Interface (BHIM-UPI) has emerged as the preferred payment mode of the citizens and has achieved a record of 452.75 crore digital payment transactions with the value of Rs 8.27 lakh crore till 28th February 2022. 

The following major steps have been taken for promotion of Digital Payments by Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY):

• The incentive scheme for promotion of RuPay Debit cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (P2M) has been initiated by MeitY to give a further boost to digital transactions in the country. This scheme facilitates Banks in building robust digital payment ecosystem, promoting RuPay Debit card and BHIM-UPI digital transactions, across all sectors and segments of the population and further deepening of digital payments in the country.
• Various other Incentive/cashback schemes were launched by MeitY for changing the customer/merchant behaviour for faster adoption of digital payments.
• Some of them were BHIM Cashback schemes for Individuals & Merchants, BHIM Aadhaar Merchant Incentive Scheme, BHIM-UPI Merchant On-boarding Scheme Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) Reimbursement scheme.
• MeitY issued advisories to Central Ministries/Departments and States/UTs to improve payments acceptance infrastructure and thereby enable the citizens to pay by a variety of modes such as Internet banking, mobile banking, and mobile applications etc.
• MeitY launched the scheme titled “Pradhan MantriGramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)” to usher in digital literacy in rural India.
• MeitY advised all Banks and Payment Service Providers to undertake awareness campaigns for promotion of secure payment practices and generate information security awareness. 
• Awareness campaigns were organized in the Capital Cities of North East to promote digital payments including BHIM app. MeitY also ran Newspaper campaigns, Digital Theatre Campaigns, FM Radio campaigns and hoarding campaigns to promote digital payments.
• Various promotion and awareness campaigns, through traditional means of publicity as well as emergent means such as social media platforms, have been initiated to encourage citizens to use digital payments.
• As part of the week-long ‘AzadiKa Digital Mahotsav’, MeitY celebrated, India’s Digital Payment Journey through a marquee ‘Digital Payment Utsav’. The day celebrated the journey and rise of digital payments in India and brought together leaders from the Government, Banking sector, Fintech companies, and Startups. Top Banks were awarded & recognized in various categories for achievements in FY 2019-20 and FY 2020-21 towards the promotion of Digital Payments.
• MeitY has integrated Digital Payment Grievances along with Ministry of Consumer Affairs (MoCA) for utilizing it with National Consumer Helpline (NCH) platform of Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA). All the major banks and financial service institutions have been on-boarded on NCH Platform. The platform is live and receiving Digital Payment related grievances.
• In order to ensure safety and security of digital payments, various steps have been taken by the Government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI)

Source : PIB

Digital payments surge from 1459.02 crore in FY 2017-18 to 4371.18 crore in FY 2020-21

As per weekly statistical supplement of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Notes in Circulation (NIC) were Rs 17,74,187 crore as on 4th November, 2016 and Rs 27,80,045 crore as on 29th January, 2021.

On digital payment ecosystem, the total volumes of digital payments have also increased from 1459.02 crore in FY 2017-18 to 4371.18 crore in FY 2020-21 due to sustained efforts towards digitalisation.

The quantum of bank notes in the economy broadly depends on the requirement for meeting the demand for bank notes due to GDP growth, inflation, and replacement of soiled bank notes and growth in non-cash modes of payment.

Source : PIB

RBI-Digital Payments Index

The Reserve Bank of India has constructed a composite Digital Payments Index (DPI) to capture the extent of digitisation of payments across the country.

The RBI-DPI comprises of 5 broad parameters that enable measurement of deepening and penetration of digital payments in the country over different time periods. These parameters are –

• Payment Enablers (weight 25%)
• Payment Infrastructure – Demand-side factors (10%)
• Payment Infrastructure – Supply-side factors (15%)
• Payment Performance (45%) and
• Consumer Centricity (5%).

Each of these parameters have sub-parameters which, in turn, consist of various measurable indicators. To see the major sub-parameters under each parameter, click here.

The RBI-DPI has been constructed with March 2018 as the base period, i.e. DPI score for March 2018 is set at 100. The DPI for March 2019, March 2020 and March 2021 work out to 153.47, 207.84 and 270.59 respectively, indicating appreciable growth. Going forward, RBI-DPI shall be published on RBI’s website on a semi-annual basis from March 2021 onwards with a lag of 4 months.

Source : RBI

MoRTH issues notification for Promotion of Digital and IT based payment of fees through FASTag

Union Ministry of Road Trasport & Highways has issued a notification making FASTag mandatory to be available by 1st of January 2021 in old vehicles also i.e. M and N category of motor vehicles (four wheelers) sold before 1st December, 2017 through amendments in CMVR, 1989.

The Ministry has notified GSR 690 (E) dated 6th November, 2020 in this regard.

As per Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, since 1st December 2017, the FASTag had been made mandatory for all registration of new four wheeled Vehicles and is being supplied by the Vehicle Manuracturer or their dealers. It had further been mandated that the renewal of fitness certificate will be done only after the fitment of FASTag for the Transport Vehicles. Further that for National Permit Vehicles the fitment of FASTag has been mandated since 1st oct 2019.

It has been further mandated that a valid FASTag is mandatory while getting a new 3rd Party Insurance through an amendment in FORM 51 (certificate of Insurance), wherein the details of FASTag ID shall be captured. This shall be applicable w.e.f. 1 April 2021.

It may be stated that this notification would be a major step for ensuring that the payment of fees be 100% at Toll Plazas through the Electronic Means only and that the vehicles pass seamlessly through the Fee Plazas. There would be no waiting time at the Plazas and would save fuel.

The steps for ensuring the availablity of FASTag at multiple channels are being made through physical locations and also through online mechanism so that the citizens are able to have them affixed at their vehicles within the next two months at their convenience.

Source : PIB

DigiVaarta launched

DigiVaarta has been launched with the express intention of spreading awareness on DigiDhan, and also to spread popularity of BHIM’s barcode-based merchant payment mode with merchants and traders at large. This launch has two components.

• An SMS application which operates from NIC’s SMS Gateway on a special Short-code service allotted for this purpose by DoT with the number “14444”. Citizens will receive SMS messages which are pre-approved by experts and the response messages will be made available for further action, analysis and research. The Government proposes initially to pay for the citizen’s response so as to promote citizen’s engagement and make the awareness program completely free for the citizen.
• A Mobile application version of DigiVaarta, which can be accessed and used by smart phone users. This app can perform many more function beyond chat, offers audio-video tutorials etc.

The initiative aims to enable citizen government dialogue and engage citizens in educational and outreach programmes. With the mobile phone as its interface, DigiVaarta’s content and communication style is interactive and adaptive. The same message can be used to interact with both smart phone and feature phone users. It can engage the user over multiple channels in a 2-way interaction, using different content styles (stories, images, videos, discussions and polls) in different languages. DigiVaarta has been launched to spread awareness amongst the common public on digital payment topics such as BHIM, Aadhar Enabled Payment Systems (AePS), Bharat QR, and Security Do’s and Don’ts to begin with.

Source : PIB

Telangana launches official e-wallet for digital payments

Telangana became the first state in the country to launch official e-wallet. The state launched the T-Wallet, the official digital wallet of the state, offering anytime anywhere platform for digital payments with no additional charge for the citizens.

Using this platform, the citizens not only can make payments to government and private organisations towards various services but also receive the benefits from government like pensions, scholarships and MGNREGS wages.

Source : Financial Express

Digital Payment Revolution : Facts & Figures

• Lucky Grahak Yojana and DigiDhan Vyapar Yojana launched on 25.12.2016
• 100 Digi Dhan Melas held in 100 cities all over the country.
• 100 day long information, education and communication campaign led by NITI Aayog to make digital payments a mass movement in India.
• At least 15,000 institutions have gone cashless across just these 100 rural and urban cities across each one of the 27 states and 7 UTs.
• With a turnout of over 15 lakh from cities, small towns and villages, the melas have enabled lakhs to open new bank accounts as well as create new Aadhaar cards.
• Rs.258 crore of prize money won by 16 lakh winners, including customers and merchants belonging to different corners of the country and from varied walks of life.
• The lucky winners of the Mega Draw felicitated by the Prime Minister in Nagpur.
• BHIM App and QR Codes launched
• BHIM App has already created a new world record by registering 1.9 crore downloads in just four months since its launch in December, 2016.
• India has seen an unprecedented increase in number of transactions made using several user-friendly digital payment methods viz. UPI, USSD, AePS.
• Volume of all digital transactions increased by about 23 times with 63,80,000 digital transactions for a value of Rs. 2425 crore in March 2017 compared to 2,80,000 digital transactions worth Rs.101 crore till November 2016.
• Aadhaar Enabled Payments have increased from 2.5 crore in November 2016 to over 5 crore in March 2017.
• Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) transactions have also increased from 3.6 crore to 6.7 crore during the same period.
• BHIM-Aadhaar, the merchant interface of the BHIM App
  • Total Onboarding (including syndicate update) : 7.15 lakhs, Transactions: 12.62 lakh
  • Aadhar:1.75 Lakh
  • BHIM/UPI 4.79 lakh
  • QR Code:1.68 lakh
  • To ensure that the culture of digital payments permeates down to the grassroots.
  • Under the Referral bonus scheme both the existing user who refers BHIM and the new user who adopts BHIM would get a cash bonus credited directly to their account.
  • Under the Cashback scheme the merchants will get a cash back on every transaction using BHIM.
  • Both schemes are to be administered by MEITY and implemented by NPCI.
  • Outlay of Rs. 495 crore for a period of six months.
• It will pave the way for making digital payments by using the Aadhaar platform.
• Any Indian citizen can pay digitally using their biometric data like their thumb imprint on a merchants’ biometric enabled device which could be smart phone having a biometric reader.
• Any citizen without access to smart phones, internet, debit or credit cards will be able to transact digitally through the BHIM Aadhaar platform.
• Already, 27 major banks are now on board with 7.15 lakh merchants so that they can start accepting payments using BHIM Aadhaar.
• ONBOARDING
• BHIM – Cash back and Referral Bonus Schemes
• 75 Townships declared Less Cash Townships
• In order to achieve the target of 2500 crore digital transactions during the current financial year, the Prime Minister announced about 75 townships spread all over India as ‘less-cash townships’.
• A less-cash township is one where the deployment of payment acceptance infrastructure is complete, all the families in the township are covered under training programs.
• Selected townships on the basis of third party assessment by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC)
• Townships with more than 80% of the total number of transactions being done through digital modes of payments during the review period are included in this list.
• These townships are likely to generate over 1.5 lakh digital transactions every day thereby leading to about 5.5 crore digital transactions in a year.

Source: PIB

NPCI, Mastercard, Visa develop Bharat QR

Bharat QR, a world first interoperable and low cost acceptance solution, developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Master card, and Visa.

Bharat QR was devised based on the direction set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in September 2016 and its Payments Vision 2018 , which outlines innovation, interoperability, and security as the three pillars to facilitate India’s transition to a less – cash society.

Bharat QR has three key benefits. First, consumers will not need to scan different QR codes at the same merchant provided by the different payment networks. Second, merchants will only need to display one QR code at the storefront or through the acquiring bank’s mobile application. Third, the underlying specification for Bharat QR can be implemented in other countries to deliver a globally interoperable solution.

Source : NPCI

Measures for Promoting Digital Payments & Creation of Less-Cash Economy: Benefit of lower rate of Income Tax on digital turnover for small businesses.

The benefit of lower rate of Income-tax on digital turnover for small businesses up to a turnover of Rs.2,00,000,00 (Rupees Two Crore), announced by the Government yesterday under Section 44AD of the Income-tax Act, 1961 is a huge benefit given to businessmen for promoting digital/banking transactions. The benefits given are explained in the following paragraph.

If a trader makes his transactions in cash on a turnover of Rs.Two Crore, then his income under the presumptive scheme will then be presumed to be Rs. 16 lakhs @ 8% of turnover.  After availing of Rs. 1.5 lakhs of deduction under Section 80C, his total tax liability will be Rs. 2,67,800/-. However, if he shifts to 100% digital transactions under the new announcement made, his profit will be presumed to be at Rs. 12 lakhs @ 6% of turnover, and after availing of Rs. 1.5 lakhs under Section 80C,  his tax liability now will be only Rs.1,44,200/. Here, digital transaction includes payment received by Cheque or through any other digital means. In the following example, the benefit obtained by traders and small businesses is explained in 3 different scenarios:

Apart from making a tax saving of almost 46% by migrating to banking mode, the small businesses would be able to build their books which may also help them get bank loans easily.  Also, if transactions are carried out through banking channels, then anybody having annual turnover up to Rs. 66 lakhs will have zero tax liability after availing the benefit of Section 80C, after amendment of this new rate structure.

Source : PIB

DigiShala DD channel launched to promote digital payments

DigiShala, a free Doordarshan DTH channel has been launched to educate and inform the people about the various modes of digital payments. The channel will help people understand the use of unified payments interface (UPI), USSD, aadhaar-enabled payments system, electronic wallets, debit and credit cards.

Door Darshan (DD) Free Dish reaches to around 2 to 2.5 crore families, mostly in rural areas and people from poor background. The DigiShala is an education and non-commercial TV channel on DD Free Dish with aim to:

• Impart education related to the digital payment ecosystem, its tools, benefits and processes
• Inform and educate citizens about Digital India - cashless, faceless and paperless
• Encourage citizens especially in rural and semi urban areas to use digital payments as well as other products and services offered by Digital India

DigiShala Subscription Details

• Free to Air (FTA) Channel with receiving frequency: 11590 MHz
• Satellite/Location: GSAT 15 (DD Direct DTH), 93.5 degree East
• Broadcasted nationally on DD Free Dish DTH service
• affordable service without any subscription fees
• DigiShala TV Channel is also available on channel no 2032 on Dish TV (of Zee Group)

DigiShala Programme Portolio

Range of educational programmes on Digital India in multiple regional languages Sessions with focus on:

• Step by step demos of making digital payments using UPI, USSD, Aadhaar, e-Wallets, cards etc
• Talk shows and panel discussions with experts
• Case studies on business transformation using digital payments
• Information about products and services under the Digital India programme

To view the Programme Schedule of DigiShala TV Channel, click here.

Source : Cashless India website

Digi Dhan Abhiyan

Digi Dhan Abhiyan is a Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) campaign to promote cashless transactions. The campaign aims to enable every citizen, small trader and merchant to promote digital payment in their every day financial transactions.

As part of the campaign, workshops and awareness drives have been organised across the country to promote cashless transaction.

Vittiya Saksharta Abhiyan (VISAKA) of MHRD

The `Vittiya Saksharta Abhiyan’, an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, aims to actively engage the youth/ students of Higher Education Institutions to encourage and motivate all payers and payees to use a digitally enabled cashless economic system for transfer of funds.

Through the VISAKA web portal, students and teachers of higher institutions can register as volunteers and upload their achievements periodically. Major achievement will be acknowledged and commended.

Source : VISAKA portal