Budget 2017-18: Promotion of Digital economy to weed out corruption and black money from system, says Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while reading out the Union Budget in Parliament on Wednesday said that promotion of digital economy will clean up the system and weed out corruption and black money.

The government will soon launch an Aadhaar-based payment system to promote digital transactions for people living in hinterlands, Jaitley said.

“A merchant enabled Aadhaar payment system will be launched shortly. This will specially be beneficial to those who do not have debit cards, mobile wallets or mobile phones,” Jaitley said while reading out the Budget in Parliament.

He also stressed that promotion of digital economy is an integral part of the Government's strategy. “This, in turn, is expected to energise private investment in the country through lower cost of credit. India is now at the cusp of a massive digital revolution. A shift to digital platform has huge benefits to the common man”.

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Jaitley also spoke of BHIM app that will unleash the power of mobile phones for making digital payments and financial inclusion.

“125 lakh people have adopted the BHIM app so far, the Government will launch two new schemes to promote the use of BHIM. These are referral bonus schemes for individuals and a cashless scheme for merchants,” Jaitley said.

He also mentioned Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile number (JAM trinity) that holds the key to one of the biggest pieces of reform ever attempted in India.

Describing them as the precursors to the current push for digital transactions, Jaitley said that there is evidence for increased digital transactions.

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Further, a mission will be set up with a target of over 2,500 crore digital transactions for 2017-18 through UPI, USSD, Aadhaar Pay, IMPS and debit cards.

Also, banks have targeted to introduce additional 10 lakh point-of-sale terminal by March 2017, he said. “Banks will be encouraged to introduce 20 lakh Aadhaar based POS by September 2017,” he said.

With PTI Inputs