In order to shift to a cashless society, a move is on to appoint a number of merchants in each gram panchayat to accept digital payments from citizens.
Union Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Aruna Sundarrajan has approached the State Government to facilitate digital payment options for the citizens in all the gram panchayats of the State.
Sundarrajan informing the State Government about the programme of the Government of India’s driving shift to a cashless society, using digital finance tools, said that at least one crore citizens and merchants will be covered across 2.5 lakh gram panchayats in the country.
In order to mobilse and enable digital payment options across the gram panchayats, CSC e-Governance Services limited (CSCeGSl) will be targeting 30 interested merchants and 100 citizens in each gram panchayat, she said.
Each merchant will be given two-hour structured course and his, her bank account will be seeded with Aadhaar and mobile numbers, said Sundarrajan.
This effort will mobilise citizens desirous of transacting digitally, and enable digital payment options and mechanisms for them. It will provide these citizens with digital financial literacy and show them the devises and tools available such as Mobile Wallet and Unified Payment Interface (UPI)-enabled Mobile App.
CSC Village level Entrepreneurs (VlEs) will contact merchants potentially desirous of shifting to digital finance, train them and where feasible, help them source devices. The objective is to ensure that a minimum number of key merchants in every gram panchayat can accept digital payments.
Sundarrajan informed the State Government that in this context, as a next step, the Government is keen to promote the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), a biometric- based digital payment system that can be used by every citizen with an Aadhaar Account.
In the meantime, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has also urged the support of the State Government for expeditious transition to digital platform at district to village level.
An incentive of Rs 10 will be provided to the district Collectors for every individual, who has transited to digital payment mode and has undertaken at least two successful transactions by any of the five methods of digital payments.
NITI Aayog will be immediately transferring amounts up to Rs 5 lakh per district based on population figures so that the district administration will use it as seed money to kick start the activity, said Kant.