In a bid to boost the Digital India initiative, the Center has approved an incentive scheme to promote RuPay Debit Card and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (person to merchant) for a period of one year from April 2022. In the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it was decided to approve the scheme of Rs 2,600 crore.
The approved incentive scheme will focus on promoting Point-of-Sale (PoS) and e-commerce transactions using RuPay Debit cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (P2M) for the current financial year FY 2022-23 .
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her speech on the Budget for FY 2022-23, had announced the government’s intention to continue the financial support for digital payments announced in the previous budget, promoting the use of affordable and user-friendly payment platforms. The focus was on giving. , The scheme has been prepared in compliance with the above budget announcement.
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In FY2021-22, the government had approved an incentive scheme in pursuance of the budget announcement for FY2021-22 to further promote digital transactions. As a result, total digital payment transactions have registered a year-on-year growth of 59%, from ₹5,554 crore in FY 2020-21 to ₹8,840 crore in FY 2021-22. BHIM-UPI transactions registered a year-on-year growth of 106%, from ₹2,233 crore in FY2020-21 to ₹4,597 crore in FY2021-22.
Various stakeholders of the digital payment system and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) expressed concern about the possible adverse impact of the zero MDR regime on the growth of the digital payments ecosystem. In addition, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has inter alia created cost-effective value proposition for ecosystem stakeholders to incentivize BHIM-UPI and RuPay debit card transactions, increase merchant acceptance footprint and faster migration from cash payments. except requested. To make digital payments.
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Digital India
Government is taking various initiatives to promote digital payments across the country. Over the past years, digital payment transactions have seen tremendous growth. During the COVID-19 crisis, digital payments facilitated the functioning of businesses including small traders and helped maintain social distancing. UPI has achieved a record 782.9 crore digital payment transactions in the month of December 2022 with a value of Rs 12.82 lakh crore.
This incentive scheme will facilitate in building a robust digital payments ecosystem and promote RuPay Debit Card and BHIM-UPI digital transactions.