(Video) Rajya Sabha TV (RSTV) The Big Picture: Cashless Economy

Topic: Cashless Economy

Guest:

Ajay Dua, (Former Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry)
Banuchandar Nagarajan, (Former Consultant, The World Bank, Washington DC)
A. K. Bhattacharya, (Editorial Director, Business Standard)

Topic Description:

In a bid to promote cashless transactions, the government on Friday said businesses with annual turnover of over Rs 50 crore can offer low-cost digital modes of payments and no charges or Merchant Discount Rate will be imposed on them or their customers. Presenting the Union Budget for 2019-20, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said two per cent tax deducted at source will be levied on cash withdrawals exceeding Rs 1 crore in a year from a bank account to discourage the practice of making business payments in cash. The Finance Minister said the Reserve Bank of India and banks will absorb these costs from the savings that will accrue to them on account of handling less cash as people move to these digital modes of payment. Lately, digital transactions using mobile payment firms are on the rise. For instance, Unified Payments Interface transactions have grown to 754 million in June 2019. IMPS and NETC transactions stood at around 171 million and 26 million, respectively. On this edition of the big picture we analyse India’s thrust towards a cashless economy.