Skip to main content

Cabinet clicks on incentives for card online payments

By
Service levy, surcharge waiver approved
Service charge, user charge and convenience fee paid by gateways and vendors on online or card payments would be waived once steps approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday come into effect.
Also, above a threshold, one has to make payment online or through cards. The move would discourage cash payment and help tax authorities get leads on evasion. The Cabinet approved various steps in this regard to be taken in a year to two years to boost these payments.
Service charge is currently levied by payment gateways and paid to the government.
The vendor using a payment gateway also pays aconvenience charge. On credit cards, it is 1- 2.5 per cent. The move will help the government in carrying out its financial inclusion programmes digitally. “ It will help reduce transaction cost and encourage electronic mode of payment, facilitating the financial inclusion agenda of the government,” said Kalpesh Mehta, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells.
The official statement explained the promotion of payments through cards and digital means will be instrumental in reducing tax avoidance, migration of government payments and collections to a cashless mode. To give a perspective, 569 million transactions were made till December of the current financial year, with payments worth Rs.67.75 lakh crore.
The largest e- commerce site, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, earned Rs.1,100 crore in 2014- 15, of which Rs.350 crore was from e- ticketing. A daily 550,000 tickets were booked on the site. Other steps approved by the Cabinet include rationalisation of telecom service charges for digital financial transactions and promotion of mobile banking. The move primarily discourages transactions in cash by providing access to financial payment services through cards and digital means, went the statement. Creation of assurance mechanisms for quick resolution of fraudulent transactions and reviewing the payments systemin the country have also been approved.
Business Standard, New Delhi, 25th February 2015

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Data storage norm splits digital payments industry

By
Data storage norm splits digital payments industry  India’s nascent digital payment industry could be thrown into disarray due to the demand by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that all user data be stored within the country, fears an industry grouping, which has termed the decision as “heavy-handed”, even as others, including the country’s largest digital payment provider Paytm, have hailed the move.  In a bid to narrow the growing schism, the industry is planning to send a formal representation to the regulator highlighting its concerns, a top official told ET.  “We are trying to build a consensus on the issue," said the person adding that the representation to the central bank will be ready this week.  RBI on April 6, mandated all payment companies—global and local—to set up data storage facilities within India by October. The stringent six-month deadline has attracted the ire of several sections of the industry that fear it will lead to a disruption of wel...
18 comments
Read more

Offer’s for all of you

By
Great Bumper Dhamaka Offer’s for all of you... It's Time to see your Business Online, WebeCreator Offer Website Designing with domain & Email @ nominal charges. For a year For More information visit us http://goo.gl/KlpppF call on 9890151261/9773197533  drop a mail to sales@webecreator.com
Post a Comment
Read more

Sebi to finalise options in commodities today

By
The Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Board of India ( Sebi) will meet on Friday with senior officials of the latter, to give a final shape to the rules on options trading in commodity futures, beside revising the warehousing norms to ensure good delivery on settlement. The decision taken, after discussing with the advisory committee, will be placed before the regulator’s board, to finalise the regulations. According to knowledgeable sources, three commodities in each segment, agricultural and non- agricultural, have been proposed for introducing options. It appears commodities from the soya and guar segments are preferred in the former. From the non- agri segment, it is likely that gold, silver and crude oil will be finalised. All these These have better liquidity and both the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange and the Multi Commodity Exchange, respectively, will be able to introduce the options. In the equity segments, options ar...
17 comments
Read more