CAIT reiterates renewed thrust on adoption of digital payments in a roundtable conference held in New Delhi

New Delhi, April 06, 2017: Extending support to the government’s mission of increased
digital payment adoption in the wake of fast approaching Goods & Service Tax (GST)
regime, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) organised a brainstorming round table conference in New Delhi. Aimed at helping non-corporate sector’s smooth transition
towards GST, the theme of the roundtable conference by CAIT was centred on Digital
Payments—Importance & Adoption for future business India.

Attended by more than 200 prominent representatives of non-corporate entities,
financial institutions, banks and technology providers, the thought-provoking event
was part of CAIT’s national campaign for spreading awareness about the importance
of electronic/cashless transaction in business. Moreover, CAIT also announced its
partnership with HDFC Bank to provide banking solutions to trading fraternity and
help them achieve maximised business growth and expansion by way of championing
into digital business operations.

CAIT is of a view that for faster adoption of digital payments, Union Government
should subsidise transaction charges levied on e-payments to the banks directly.
CAIT also advocates for implementation of the drafted proposal floated by
government in August 2015, for incentivising traders who are willing to accept digital
payments. The incentive could be in form of either tax benefits or waiver of
transaction costs which would result into encouraging traders to embrace e-payments
system.

Speaking at the occasion, CAIT National President Mr. B.C. Bhartia said,
“Transaction charges are one of the major deterrents in adoption of digital payments
in the country. It is urgently required for the government to do away with the
transaction charges so that neither the traders nor the consumers are burdened. On the
other hand, the Government may levy a nominal ATM usage surcharge in order to
discourage people to withdraw cash from ATMs and motivate them to pay directly by
cards.”

Reiterating his views, Mr. Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, CAIT
suggested, “A Digital Payment Promotion Board should be formed comprising of
senior officials, representatives of traders and consumers. Also, in accordance with
the recommendations of Wattal Committee, there is a quick need to set up an
independent Payments Regulatory Board.” He further added that, “The Non Banking
Finance Companies & Micro Finance Institutions should also be brought under the

landscape of digital payments to install white label PoS terminals by subsidising
these directly or indirectly across both urban and rural areas.”

As per the report of United States Agency for International Development (USAID),
about 97% of retail transactions are performed in cash and about 79% of customers
are unaware about online banking. Also, in India cards are predominantly used for
cash withdrawal rather than at the Point of Sale (PoS) terminals and the true value of
electronic transactions is maximised when cards are used at the point of sale, rather
than as a transaction tool to withdraw cash.

To raise awareness of these unveiled benefits of digital payments, CAIT is working in
mission mode for last two years in association with MasterCard. CAIT also launched
a national campaign this year in association with Ministry of Electronics and
Information Technology (MeitY), with the purpose to persuade non-corporate
business sector for amplified adoption of Digital Payments