Rs 1 Cr Lucky Draw: 3 Questions for NITI Aayog On DigiDhan Yojana

NITI Aayog is using lucky draws to promote cashless payments, but where’s the infrastructure, bhai?

Lucky draw mein Rs 1 crore ka mega prize! Jeetiye 1,000 rupaiye har roz! April 2017 tak!

NITI Aayog, India’s premier government think tank and policy adviser, is promoting digital payments by announcing ‘lottery’ awards.

NITI’s Aayog’s Lucky Draw: Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-Dhan Yojana

NITI Aayog has announced two schemes called Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-Dhan Yojana.

Under the schemes, consumers and merchants using UPI, RuPay cards, Aadhar-enabled and USSD-platforms are eligible for daily prizes of Rs 1,000. There are weekly draws with a maximum prize for Rs 1 lakh for consumers and Rs 50,000 for merchants.

Apart from these, a mega reward up to Rs 1 crore will be announced on 14 April 2017. Only payments above Rs 50 and below Rs 3,000 will be considered. The winners will be picked through a random selection of digital transaction IDs by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), which is also the implementing authority for the scheme.

But The Quint has a few questions for NITI Aayog.

1. Bahut Na Insaafi Hai: Why Aren’t Credit, Debit Cards, E-Wallets Included?

Credit cards, debit cards and e-wallets like Paytm are not included in the lucky draw scheme. But if the aim of the scheme is to encourage cashless transactions in India, why are only certain means of digital payment being incentivised?

In the weeks after demonetisation was announced, PM Modi has extolled the features of a cashless economy. But the market for digital payments includes all kinds of players, private and government. Why only promote and reward government-backed digital payment instruments?

Sarkar ka ‘cashless’ sahi, private ‘cashless’ nahi?

2. Where is the Infrastructure, Bhai?

Across India, there are just 14 lakh point of sales or ‘card swiping’ machines in India (as of August 2016) to serve over 125 crore people. Poor internet bandwidth, connectivity and penetration is another massive hurdle. And only 17% of India owns a smartphone.

So, even if the NITI Aayog scheme does encourage people to ditch cash and ‘go digital’, the technology and infrastructure required for a large-scale cashless wave still lags way behind.

3. Digital Payment Costs More than Cash, So Where’s The Taxation Relief?

Paying digitally costs more than a cashless transaction. While the government has directed all public sector banks to lower the fees they charge for different kinds of digital transactions, digital payments do cost more than using cash. Unless that changes, a ‘lottery’ may not convince me to go ‘cashless’.

In a speech at IIT Bangalore and reported by The Economic Times, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said:

We will make digital transactions cheaper than cash transactions, and the market forces will take over. The government is saying it will ensure people with digital transactions are supported through various taxation measures. That will happen in the next few days. Several measures have been announced by the finance minister but many more will be announced in the Budget, I am sure.  

So, while the NITI Aayog chief has spelt out the taxation changes needed to encourage digital payments, he can’t guarantee that the 2017 Budget will actually do that, can he?

Till then, go cashless and cross your fingers. You could be the lucky winner!

(This story was originally published on 23 December 2016 and has been republished from The Quint’s archives.)

(Source: The Economic Times, The Hindu, NITI Aayog website, Livemint, The Indian Express, Reserve Bank of India)