With the aim of the cashless society in mind, a proposal had circulated the media- to withdraw the cheque book facility. But the Finance Minister has other plans.
On the 23rd of November 2017, the finance ministry said there is no proposal to withdraw the bank cheque book facility, which is an integral part of the payments landscape.
The clarification comes in the backdrop of reports in a certain section of media that there is a possibility that the central government may withdraw bank cheque book facility in the near future, with an intent to encourage digital transactions.
This has been denied by the government and reaffirmed that there’s no such proposal, it said in statement.
“The Government of India has reaffirmed that there is NO proposal under consideration to withdraw the bank Cheque Book facility,” the finance ministry said in a tweet.
Post demonetization, the government has been pushing digital transaction with an aim to move towards less cash society.
The ministry emphasized that while the government is committed to transform India into a less cash economy and promote digital and electronic transactions, “cheques are an integral part of the payments landscape”.
It said cheques form the backbone of trade and commerce, by being negotiable instruments, which often serve as the security for underlying trade transactions.
It is a well known fact that the digital transactions rose after the government’s note ban exercise and e-payment companies have since seen substantial jump in their businesses.
“In the last 12 months, we saw over three times growth. Before demonetization, we were processing monthly transactions of Rs 3,000 crore, which now stands at Rs 6,800 crore across all our verticals,” Atom Technologies Managing Director and CEO Dewang Neralla said.
According to the Payments Council of India, the growth rate of the digital payments industry, which was earlier in the range of 20-50 per cent, has accelerated post demonetization to 40-70 per cent.
Most digital players in the industry have made multi-fold investments in the sector in the last one year in infra, brand, marketing, creating awareness.
The government has been pushing for a less-cash economy and promoting digital transactions, especially post-demonetization of high value currency in November last year.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in the budget speech for 2017-18, had said that as the country moves faster on the path of digital transactions and cheque payments, “we need to ensure that the payees of dishonored cheques are able to realize the payments”.
Post Your Comments