<div><em>The government is also planning to bring in a series of steps that help in enhancing the mechanisms that support e-payment, says <strong>Manish Kumar Pathak</strong></em><br><br><br>The Union Government has proposed tax benefits for users taking the route of e-payment, which includes payment made through credit cards, debit cards or via any other mode of online transaction. This move is a follow up on the speech made by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, during his budget speech, when he indentified that e-payments will go a long way in curbing the flow of black money in the economy. The Government is also planning to bring in a series of steps that helps in enhancing the mechanisms that support e-payment.<br> </div><div>This idea, if executed strategically, will be a major boost for the government, as it will help curtail counterfeit cash transactions, as the payment which are made online, leave a trail which can be traced if there is any ambiguity. Also, this will be beneficial in gauging the prevalent trends of investments made in the country.<br> </div><div>There is then the issue of fake currency, and this menace can be mitigated if electronic transactions take off.</div><div>The main clauses are:</div><ul><li>Any high value transactions that exceed Rs 1 Lakh, will have to be settled through the electronic mode.</li><li>For the purchase of gas, railway tickets etc, there will be no additional costs charged.</li><li>The Government departments will now have to espouse ‘PayGov India’, for collection of any revenue, penalty or fee.</li><li>The benefit will also be extended to shopkeepers and small businessmen, if they accept a substantial value of the sales through plastic money. Also a reduction of about 1-2 per cent in VAT may be considered.</li><li>Utility service providers could be advised to provide a discount to users for small ticket payments online. BSNL, for instance which provides an incentive of 1 per cent of the billed amount for any online payment.</li></ul><div> </div><div>These proposals were prepared by the government, after extensive consultations with RBI, NPCI, NIBM, and different private and public sector banks. Also, the opinion of different card service providers, mobile service providers, and different research and government departments, was taken into account. </div><div> </div><div>The people however, will have to be taken into confidence first, as the major chunk of Indian population is still sceptical about paperless transactions, and before these proposals are rolled out, these potential customers will have to be taken on board first. </div><div> </div>
