Moving fast and forward on the road to cashless transactions, the Haryana Government has directed all departments, corporations and boards to install swipe machines and provide necessary infrastructure to facilitate the common man, including employees, to pay government dues through electronic mediums like debit and credit cards, especially the RuPay cards, without any difficulty.
This will also help in promoting the ease of doing business in the State, said a spokesman of the Finance Department. In keeping with the RBI decision, the State Government has also decided to facilitate the people by allowing the use of old currency notes `500 denomination up to December 15 at specified places and for specific purposes. The spokesman said that old currency notes of `500 could be used for making payments in Government hospitals for medical treatment and at pharmacies in government hospitals for buying medicines with doctor’s prescription. Such currency notes can also be used for making purchases at Consumer Cooperative Stores operated under authorisation of Central or State Governments with identity proof. Such purchases would be limited to `5,000 at a time, he said.
The old currency notes of `500 can also be used for making purchase at milk booths operating under authorisation of the Central and State Government like VITA and at Government milk plants. The facility can also be availed for making payment at crematoriums and burial grounds, purchase of lPG gas cylinders, tickets for travel by suburban and metro rail services, and entry tickets for any monument maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India. The spokesman said these notes could also be used for making payment of court fees, school fees up to `2,000 per student in Central Government, State Government, municipality and local body schools, payment of fee in Central of state government colleges, payments towards pre-paid mobile top-up to a limit of `500, and at all pharmacies on production of doctor’s prescription and proof of identity. These could also be used for making payments towards any fees, charges, taxes or penalties, payable to the Central or State Government, including municipal and local bodies, said he. Similarly, such notes can be used for payments towards electricity charges of power utilities like UHBVN and DHBVN and water charges in rural and urban area by Public Health Engineering Department, HUDA and urban local bodies. This facility would be restricted to individuals or households for making payment of only arrears or current charges.
No advance payments would be allowed, he added. Such currency could also be used for making payments towards the purchase of seeds from the centres, units or outlets like HAFED and Haryana Agro Industries, belonging to the Central or the state government, public sector undertakings, national or state seeds corporations, Central or state agricultural universities and the Indian Council or Agricultural Research, on production of proof of identity.