To promote digital payments system in Punjab, the Centre has selected Amritsar, ludhiana and Jalandhar for launching its scheme ‘lucky Grahak Yojana, and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana’.
“Centre has launched lucky Grahak Yojana to encourage consumers and Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana to encourage merchants for transition to digital payments with a main focus to bring the poor, lower middle class and small businesses into digital payment fold,” said the state Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Satish Chandra, after a video conference with the Union Cabinet Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha and his counterparts of other state Governments.
Chandra said that National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) would be the implementing agency for these schemes.
The two award-based schemes would start from December 25, 2016, and would end on April 14, 2017 and are launched by the NlTl Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India Aayog) — the Central Government’s policy think-tank.
The schemes aim to give cash awards to consumers and merchants who utilize digital payment instruments for personal consumption expenditures. To ensure focus on small transactions, incentives will be restricted to transactions within the range of Rs 50 and Rs 3,000.