CHANDIGARH, DEC 30
The momentous 2016 has bequeathed to the succeeding 2017 a legacy no other year did before in Haryana. Rich and replete with great future potential to ensure seamless growth, it has laid the road to a cashless, and comparatively, clean economy.
The legacy seems to lend heft, purpose and potency to the drive to make Haryana don the mantle of being the first cashless state in the country, a vision nurtured by the Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Lal, and shared by his able ministerial and quick-footed bureaucratic team walking in lockstep with the former.
Determined to move fast and forward on the road to becoming a cashless state, 2016 saw the BJP Government pull all stops, including incentivizing the cash-to-card switch with awards. Conscious and calibrated steps have been taken to promote cashless transactions through debit and credit cards, especially the RuPay card, and other modes of making digital payments.
Digital transactions have been given a reward push both by the Centre and the state government. The Haryana Government gave Rs 5 up to December 15, 2016 as a token of appreciation to each person who got himself registered on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and other modes of cashless transactions. UPI is a quick and easy way to send and receive money using a Virtual Payment Address (VPA) without entering additional bank information and USSD, a Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication technology.
The incentives at the state level came alongside similar initiatives taken by the Central Government. In a letter written to deputy commissioners, the NITI Aayog announced cash incentive of Rs 10 for every individual who makes two successful transactions by Unified Payment Interface (UPI), *99# Banking, Aadhaar enabled payments, e-Wallets or RuPay, debit and credit cards. The Aayog would transfer Rs 5 lakh each to all DCs for the purpose.
The first 50 panchayats going cashless will be awarded Digital Payment Award of Honour by NITI Ayog which has formulated a scheme to support the efforts made by the state and district administration as well as panchayats to promote digital payments.
Similarly, cash incentives of Rs 100 per trader and Rs 5 per individual have been announced by the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for enrolling on the digital payment system.
Giving cashless transactions a decisive push, the Manohar Lal Government has decided to implement the Aaadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) which facilitates transactions without any card. Bankers have been asked to make available MPOS (Mobile Point of Sale) devices and encourage traders to use the gadget for promoting cashless transactions. The MPOS devices are also being installed in government departments having receipt section.
The State Bank of India (SBI) had agreed to provide the facility of POS machines free of charge to the state government and its departments across the state. The transactions settled through POS terminals would be credited by SBI to the respective department's Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) bank accounts on T+ I basis (T denotes transaction day).
The Chief Minister has asked bankers to expedite the distribution of RuPay Card to give impetus to the use of plastic money. Besides, banks have also been told to facilitate RTGS or NEFT through online portals for large value transactions to promote net banking.
More than 77 per cent beneficiaries have been Aaadhar-seeded and efforts are being made to cover the remaining. About 45 per cent Aaadhar cards have already been linked with bank accounts and process has been set in motion to link the remaining too.
An eight-member committee has been set up under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary for the promotion of digital payments. It would oversee implementation and resolve related policy issues. The Chief Minister has sent one administrative secretary to each district to promote cashless transactions.
Another committee of administrative secretaries has been set up to seek suggestions from all departments, and execute possible modules to realise the objective. All receipts and payments in government would be made totally cashless, and this practice shall also be gradually promoted in the society.
Conscious of the need to train the staff, a committee headed by administrative secretary has been set up to prepare the schedule for imparting training in digital banking and online transactions.
All administrative secretaries have been directed to make available sufficient number of POS machines in a time-bound manner to promote digital transactions. Request has been received from eleven different departments for 1,627 POS machines, including 137 by Transport , 133 by Excise and Taxation Department, 111 by Higher Education and 110 by Public Health Engineering Department. Out of these, accounts have been opened and code generated for 252 machines.
More than 21,000 people had registered on web portal cashlessharyana.nic.in. A scheme has already been launched under which prizes, selected randomly by the computer, would be given to the citizens registering themselves and transacting proactively cashless transactions.
Interestingly, the go-cashless tide has swept several departments and wings of the state government. Out to en-cash the go-cashless campaign, the Power, Higher Education, Police and Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Departments have drawn up plans to install POS machines and AEPS to encourage people to switch to mobile banking system.
Not to be left behind, all colleges and universities in Haryana are gearing up to go cashless. Student volunteers are being enrolled to educate people about using digital payment systems. The state government has decided to open committed bank accounts of all government schools in the nearest bank branch for payment of fees. The nodal teacher in each school would download the e-wallet of the bank concerned. Parents or guardians of students would be motivated to utilise the e-wallet of the bank to pay the fees. With a view to preventing misuse, provision would be made so that cash could not be withdrawn from this account.
Making compounding of challans cashless, the Haryana Police have started the system of collecting the compounding fine on the offense of traffic violation through POS device. The POS devices would also be installed in tehsils.
Power utilities and municipal corporations shall encourage the people visiting their offices to conduct cashless transactions. All officers and employees will popularize the system of payment through mobile and make it a mass movement.
Given the spirit and zeal with which the Manohar Lal Government is giving the go-cashless drive momentum, Haryana seems set to realize the goal of wearing the hat of becoming the first cashless state in the country.
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