In a move to ease the cash-crunch and mitigate the hardships being faced by the common man, especially farmers across India due to demonetisation, the Government on Wednesday incentivised e-payments and directed banks to waive debit card transaction charges till December 31 to encourage payments through debit cards, the Internet and mobile phones. Also, to ensure quick and unhindered flow of credit and cash to farmers during the current rabi season, the Government allowed National Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development (NABARD) to disburse Rs21,000 crore through cooperative banks to farmers. Nabard sanctioned the fund.
“Public sector banks, some of the private banks and some of the service providers that provide switching services have agreed to waive the service charges on the use of debit cards up to December 31, 2016,” Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das told reports here.
“Indian Railways has already waived service charges on online booking of tickets and telecom operators have agreed to make mobile banking services free of cost till December 31,” he added.
While the Government departments and Public Sector Units have been asked to make electronic payment to contractors and their employees,
the Road Transport Ministry has asked automobile manufacturers to install digital Radio-Frequency Identification tag on all new vehicles to enable cashless payment at toll plazas.
Similarly, the Government has doubled the monthly transaction limit through e-wallets to Rs 20,000. “All these measures are meant to promote digital penetration. It will also help farmers in the current rabi season to ensure a normal rabi crop on the back of good Monsoon,” Das said.
As of now, Rupay debit cards have already waived the switching charges. Other debit cards that operate through international card network companies like MasterCard and Visa currently charge transaction charges. “The merchant discount rate charges on use of debit cards, the charges being levied by banks and the switching charges will stand completely waived. So, there will be no charge on use of debit cards,” he said, adding that banks will make announcement in this regard individually.