Nearly 10 lakh customers win over Rs 153.5 crore in govt's digital payment schemes

New Delhi: The government has rewarded nearly 10 lakh customers with over Rs 153.5 crore for embracing digital payments.

Niti Aayog had launched two schemes on December 25 last year - Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants - to promote digital payments. The schemes will remain open till April 14.

"The initiative to make digital payments a mass movement in India through the two schemes has made headway across the country with more and more people adopting digital transactions," NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant told media persons on Tuesday.

According to the latest figures released by the National Payments Corporation of India, which has been executing the two schemes, the 9.8 lakh winners include 9.2 lakh consumers and 56,000 merchants.

Maharashtra heads the list of states in terms of number of winners, followed by Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

"There are challenges to keep the momentum going and the biggest change is to bring about behavioural change, to ensure technical failures come down, merchant discount rates fall and digital transaction costs are on a par with cash transaction," Kant said."We will be able to address these challenges."

Kant said the government will ensure BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money mobile application) becomes the default option for digital payments. The Centre will soon roll out a cash-back scheme to give a further boost to the use of BHIM, he said.

The NITI Aayog has said that the mobile app pushed by the government to make digital payments a mass movement in India has seen more than 17 million installs (downloads), a world record.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.