The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has urged the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister for IT Ashwini Vaishnaw to constitute a Digital Payment Promotion Board to enable faster adoption of digital payments across India.

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Pitching for a government subsidy on transaction charges on digital payments to increase the acceptance of the payment mechanism, CAIT termed the burden of transaction charges as one of the major deterrent in adoption and acceptance of digital payments.

Calling for a separate regulatory authority to monitor and regulate the digital payments industry, CAIT has sought that the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) should run applications like UPI and BHIM. The traders’ body is of the view that the digital payments industry should also be provided an open network for better services to users, while suggesting an incentive scheme for greater adoption of digital payments.

The demand includes incentives on all sorts of debit and credit cards, other modes of digital payments like POS terminals, M-POS, mobile wallets, mobile applications, QR code, UPI and Aadhar enabled applications.

Asking for a levy to be imposed on over 3 cash withdrawals a month via ATMs to disincentivize use of cash, CAIT wants recommendations of the Wattal Committee to be implemented by setting up an independent Payments Regulatory Board.

The traders’ body also sought that Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) and Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) should be brought under the landscape of digital payments to install white label POS terminals by encouraging a scheme to subsidise POS terminals directly or indirectly, in both urban and rural areas.

(Edited by : Keshav Singh Chundawat)