A target of 3,013 crore digital payments transactions has been set by the Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology.

In a big boost to government’s ‘Digital India’ initiative, e- payment transactions recorded a significant jump to 2070.98 crore in 2017-18, Minister of State for Information Technology (IT) said in a reply to a question in Lok Sabha yesterday. In 2013-14, 220 crore e-transactions were recorded. The central government is working with different stakeholders namely smart cities, banks, payment service providers and state to further promote the cashless payments, the minister also said in response to another question.

A target of 3,013 crore digital payments transactions has been set by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in 2018-19. The ministry uses a performance scorecard and a bank ranking system to monitor and also evaluate the performance of the lenders.

During the years 2014, 2015 and 2016, 10, 18 and 26 cases were filed under debit or credit card frauds, as per the information availed from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Even though the digital payment transactions have surged over the years, the fraud cases haven’t climbed, the minister pointed out in the Lok Sabha.

The phone messaging app WhatsApp has been asked by the government to share the details related with the action taken by the company with respect to fake news, the minister also said in a separate reply. He also said that the central government doesn’t plan to tap into the messages of the citizens. The government is taking various initiatives to raise user awareness related to cyber safety.

Meanwhile, according to the recent Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, in 2015-16 the total frauds were 1,191. The number climbed to 1,372 the following year and increased to 2,488 in the fiscal year 2017-18. Rs 40.20 crore was the amount of money involved in the frauds in the fiscal year 2015-16. In the next fiscal figure reached to Rs 43.18 crore and it tripled in 2017-18 to Rs 149.62 crore.