As the government kick-started the Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana for consumers and merchants to push the digital drive, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that it is in the interest of every country that it becomes a less-cash economy.

Donning the Santa Clause hat, the government will give 15,000 people rewards of Rs 1,000 each for the next 100 days through a lucky draw. The draw for rewards will be done based on use of such digital payment methods.Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat address said that, "You will be entitled to this gift only if you make use of mobile banking, e-banking, RuPay card, UPI, USSD - such means and methods of digital payment," In addition, he said, there will be a grand draw once every week for such customers in which the prize money will be in lakhs of rupees.

Reiterating on the importance of digital payments Jaitley said, "I can assure with such initiatives we will have a better nation,a better and cleaner economy in future." He further stated that from counterfeit currency to terrorism, everything has been a result of heavy dependence on cash economy. "We communicated with many nations regarding information about Indians who have black money stashed overseas," said Jaitley. Commenting on the real estate sector which was infamous for hoarding cash, he said "If people had to buy property it was asked that how much will be paid in cash and how much by cheque. Such immoral practices prevailed."

Lauding the nation's digital growth trajectory Jaitley stated, "From a time when 1% population had mobile phones, in 20 years it has now come to more than 90% in India." He added, "Bill Gates told me that here more than 100 crore have mobile phones, 109 crore have Aadhar cards, so digital economy will boom in India."

Like the Prime Minister, Jaitley said that there will be some problems in the short run due to the government's push towards a digital economy, but the economy will strengthen when money comes into the banking system. Taking a dig at the opposition he stated, "Our bid to go cashless means less cash not no cash,but our political counterparts are slow in understanding this and so is some of the media."

(With agency inputs)