CAIT SUPPORT PM FOR CASHLESS ECONOMY MENTIONED IN MANN KI BAAT
CAIT DEMANDS INCENTIVE SCHEMES TO ENCOURAGE ELECTRONIC PAYMENTS
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has complimented Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for spelling out his vision about cashless society in his Man Ki Baat address made yesterday to the Countrymen. ” It will be a pro-active step towards eradication of black money since use of digital payments will bring accountability and make the system more transparent”-said CAIT. It has suggested that like PM Jan Dhan Yojna and Mudra Yojna, this vision of cashless society should be canvassed through a national campaign across the Country and an incentivisation scheme must be formulated to encourage more and more people to use electronic payments in their personal expenditure and business transactions. While saying so, the Prime Minister has set an agenda for of cashless economy as one of the priority of the Government-said CAIT. In line with PMs cashless vision, the CAIT will soon release a White Paper and a Roadmap on Less Cash economy in India and will also hold a national conference of stakeholders to take forward the cashless vision of Prime Minister.
In India 96% retail transactions are conducted in cash.Only 3.6% of households in India make cashless transactions. There are about 60 crore Debit Cards and 2 crore Credit Cards in the Country. Almost 95% of Debit Cards are used at ATMs to withdraw cash. The CAIT has suggested to levy 0.5% service charge on each withdrawl from ATMs to discourage cash withdrawals.
CAIT National President Mr. B. C.Bhartia & Secretary General Mr. Praveen Khandelwal while reaffirming the commitment to transform India and trader’s constituency of 5.77 crore small businesses to adopt digital technologies and electronic payments said that for India to see double digit growth, it is critical to leverage all modes of electronic payments like Debit/Credit Card, Point of Sale terminals and Mobile Applications to a great and wider extent. The Government should launch a massive national campaign for making awareness across the Country in association with Trade Associations, Resident Welfare Associations, Consumer Organisations, Banks, Financial Institutions, Chartered Accountants and other sections of the public. The CAIT has been at the fore front of a less cash vision by partnering with MasterCard since last more than One and a half year to educate merchants and traders about digital payments and e commerce. So far it has trained about 50 thousand traders all over the Country by holding regular workshops,seminars and conferences.
They further suggested that in order to ensure early adoption of cashless society, the Government should bring incentivisation policy which may include tax benefits, discounts in property tax, telephone and electricity bills and in other government revenue. There are merely about 12 lakh POS terminals in the Country. To augment usage of POS terminals at its availability at reasonable prices, the Government should facilitate manufacturing of Point of Sale (POS) terminals in the Country itself under Make in India program.Currently, the POS machines are imported. The CAIT has also called for abolition of import duty on POS terminals. It has also urged the Government to abolish transaction cost usually taken by the Banks on each transaction made through Debit/Credit Card which is a major deterrent in adoption of electronic payments.There also a need for easier KYC norms for small businesses alongwith a revised credit rating mechanism.
They further said that it is imperative that we adopt best available technologies & innovations. To achieve this, we must adopt a payment neutral approach that prioritizes a free & open market and a competitive playing field that encourages a race to the top for innovation, cost,security and integration and gives consumers and businesses the freedom of choice that is hallmark of various economies of the world. The National Payment Council of India (NPCI) should be made an independent regulator and Rupay must be handled by any separate Authority-added CAIT.  The NPCI should be working with the private sector to tackle the shared goal of moving to a less cash society.
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