Skip to main content

With the ongoing cash crunch, digital money gets another lifeline

By
With the ongoing cash crunch, digital money gets another lifeline
As news of no-cash flooded social media sites and news channels, the past 24 hours have seen a surge in people queuing to get the KYC done
After a lull for months, things might be again looking up for the country’s digital money entities, due to the ongoing cash shortage.After demonetisation, the sector had a shortlived dream run, from November 2016 to mid-2017. According to the Reserve Bank of India’s data on prepaid payment instruments (a chunk of which is mobile wallets), these collectively clocked Rs 38.3 billion in transactions during January, falling to Rs 36.5 billion in February.
The March numbers are not out, but might fall again - many users stopped using mobile wallets after the February 28 deadline for getting the know-your-customer (KYC) checks done by mobile wallet entities. Many had decided not to get this done and, say observers, the digital money space had lost almost 45 per cent of its user base.
As news of no-cash flooded social media sites and news channels, the past 24 hours have seen a surge in people queuing to get the KYC done. In fact, “over the past few days, we have seen a surge of 27 per cent in our digital payments, as well as QR-based payments to merchants, primarily driven by consumers in regions where the cash crunch is acute. We are also seeing a 33 per cent increase in KYC and eKYC requests,” said Upasana Taku, co-founder and director, MobiKwik.
“Our initiatives to increase eKYC infrastructure at retail points is gradually increasing digital wallet remittance transactions. We are hopeful of getting the same volume as on February 2018 in the next two months,” said Praveen Dhabhai, operations head at Payworld.One97 Communications, owner of the Paytm brand, offers multi-source and multi-destination payment solutions.
It says it has seen a 30 per cent surge in transactions from several cities, compared to last month. This growth has come from major parts of Andhra, Telangana, Bihar, Gujarat, Assam, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.“With the ongoing cash crunch, customers are using more of our services, which has led to growth in money transfers and QR-based payment in cities where ATMs have gone dry,” said Kiran Vasireddy, its operations head.
The Business Standard, New Delhi, 19th April 2018
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New income tax slab and rates for new tax regime FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25) announced in Budget 2023

By
  Basic exemption limit has been hiked to Rs.3 lakh from Rs 2.5 currently under the new income tax regime in Budget 2023. Further, the income tax slabs in the new tax regime has been changed. According to the announcement, 5 income tax slabs will be there in FY 2023-24, from 6 income tax slabs currently. A rebate under Section 87A has been enhanced under the new tax regime; from the current income level of Rs.5 lakh to Rs.7 lakh. Thus, individuals opting for the new income tax regime and having an income up to Rs.7 lakh will not pay any taxes   The income tax slabs under the new income tax regime will now be as follows: Rs 0 to Rs 3 lakh - 0% tax rate Rs 3 lakh to 6 lakh - 5% Rs 6 lakh to 9 lakh - 10% Rs 9 lakh to Rs 12 lakh - 15% Rs 12 lakh to Rs 15 lakh - 20% Above Rs 15 lakh - 30%   The revised Income tax slabs under new tax regime for FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25)   Income tax slabs under new tax regime Income tax rates under new tax regime O to Rs 3 lakh 0 Rs 3 lakh to Rs 6 lakh 5% Rs 6
Post a Comment
Read more

Jaitley plans to cut MSME tax rate to 25%

By
Income tax for companies with annual turnover up to ?50 crore has been reduced to 25% from 30% in order to make Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) companies more viable and also to encourage firms to migrate to a company format. This move will benefit 96% or 6.67 lakh of the 6.94 lakh companies filing returns of lower taxation and make MSME sector more competitive as compared with large companies. However, bigger firms have shown their disappointment since the proposal for reducing tax rates was to make Indian firms competitive globally and it is the large firms that are competing globally. The Finance Minister foregone revenue estimate of Rs 7,200 crore per annum for this for this measure. Besides, the Finance Minister refrained from removing or reducing Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT), a popular demand from India Inc., but provided a higher period of 15 years for carry forward of future credit claims, instead of the existing 10-year period. “It is not practical to rem
1 comment
Read more

Don't forget to verify your income tax return in August: Here's the process

By
  An ITR return needs to be verified within 120 days of filing of tax return. Now that you have filed your income tax return, remember to verify it because your return filing process is not complete unless you do so. The CBDT has reduced the time limit of ITR verification to 30 days (from 120 days) from the date of return submission. The new rule is applicable for the returns filed online on or after 1st August 2022. E-verification is the most convenient and instant method for verifying your ITR. However, if you prefer not to e-verify, you have the option to verify it by sending a physical copy of the ITR-V. Taxpayers who filed returns by July 31, 2023 but forget to verify their tax returns, will get the following email from the tax department, as per ClearTax. If your ITR is not verified within 30 days of e-filing, it will be considered invalid, and may be liable to pay a Late Fee. Aadhaar OTP | EVC through bank account | EVC through Demat account | Sending duly signed ITR-V through s
Post a Comment
Read more