Government firms up plans to take the Digital Payment Communication Campaign to district, taluka and panchayat levels

With a view to provide logistic support to the IEC activities- information, education and communication, holding camps for transiting to the digital mode of payment, the Government has undertaken a series of measures to provide incentives to the district administration which will give a boost to cashless digital payment systems across the districts, talukas and panchayats.   NITI Aayog has enlisted a series of incentives for the communication campaign for the district authorities and administration to promote the transition to the cashless digital payment systems.  

These include incentives for digital payments for day to day financial transactions like buying or selling goods/services, transferring money etc.

NITI Aayog will provide logistic support for outreach activities at the district, taluk and panchayat level in form of the seed money of ₹ 5lakh per district administration as a part of the communication campaign. The purpose is to enhance the seeding of Mobile and Aadhar numbers to the bank account, issue of Rupay cards wherever necessary, issue of PIN wherever necessary, downloading of app wherever necessary and finally achieving two successful transactions.

The top ten best performing districts will be awarded the Digital Payment Champions of India award.

The first 50 Panchayats which go cashless will be awarded Digital Payment Award of Honour

The five digital payment systems are -

1. Unified Payment Interface, UPI

2. USSD (*99#banking)

3. Adhar Enabled Systems

4. Wallets &

5. Rupay/Debit/Credit/Prepaid Cards

The Hindi/English version of the brochure which gives step by step approach to each of the five options is available on the website- www.niti.gov.in/conetent/digital-payments . In order to help spread the message of advantages of digital payment systems , NITI Aayog has collated and put up the entire sets of creative material – presentations/posters./FM radio spots/ films on its website dedicated to the digital payments- www.niti.gov.in/conetent/digital-payments.

In addition, Common Service Networks are being mobilized to enlist the support of people and the merchants in going cashless. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has announced cash incentive of ₹ 100 for every merchant enabled to transact digitally. Two resource persons have been provided in each district collectorate to co-ordinate the CSE in each district.

NITI Aayog has also solicited the views of the districts in terms of the challenges being faced by them, the solutions thereof and the manner in which they can be supported. It has lauded the efforts made by the district authorities in designing innovative Campaigns to help spread digital payments in their respective districts and urged upon them tp share and document the best practices. It will go a long way towards ushering in an era of transparency and good governance for a corruption free India envisaged by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.