Cheap petrol to discount on rail tickets: Highlights of steps for cashless India

india

Updated: Dec 08, 2016 18:46 IST

Finance minister Arun Jaitley announced a slew of measures on Thursday to promote cashless transactions, including discounts on the purchase of rail tickets, insurance policies and petroleum products using plastic money or e-wallets.

Addressing a press conference, he said this was part of the government’s campaign to encourage people to use less paper currency.

Here are the major announcements:

* Petrol and diesel will be cheaper by 0.75% for people using digital wallets.

* Two Point of Sale (PoS) machines each for one lakh villages with a population of less than 10,000. The exercise will be supported through financial inclusion fund.

* The government will support regional rural banks and cooperative banks through NABARD to issue “Rupay Kisan Cards” to 4.32 crore Kisan Credit Card holders.

* 0.5% discount on suburban monthly/season railway tickets for digital payments. These discounts start January 1 with the Mumbai Suburban Railways.

* All railway passengers buying online ticket shall be given free accidental insurance cover of up to Rs. 10 lakh if digital payment is made.

* 5% discount on paid services offered through affiliates of Indian Railways if customers pay by cards/e-wallets.

* 10% discount for those buying policies/paying premium from the websites of government-run insurance companies.

* 10% discount on toll charges by using FASTags and RFID.

* The government will ensure that transaction charges associated with digital payment shall not be passed on to the consumers.

* State-run banks to ensure that merchants should not be required to pay more than Rs 100/month as monthly rental for PoS terminals/micro ATMs/mobile PoS.