The ministry has also requested all government departments to encourage their staff to make use of debit cards for personal transactions. A similar advisory would also be issued PSUs and autonomous bodies, etc
To give a fillip to digital payments, the finance ministry on Monday halved the threshold limit to R5,000 for payments to be mandatorily made electronically by all government departments to suppliers, contractors and other institutions.
The earlier threshold for e-payment was R10,000. “All the ministries and departments of the government have been now directed by the finance ministry to ensure with immediate effect that all payments above R5,000 to suppliers, contractors, grantee and loanee institutions, etc, are made by issue of payment advises only,” the ministry said.
The ministry has also requested all government departments to encourage their staff to make use of debit cards for personal transactions. A similar advisory would also be issued PSUs and autonomous bodies, etc.
On Monday, the Centre has kicked-off a mega multimedia campaign across the country to popularise cashless transactions among masses after the recent demonetisation of R500 and R1,000 notes, which accounted for 86% of the currency notes in circulation, caused hardship to people.
NITI Aayog has enlisted a series of incentives for the communication campaign for the district authorities and administration to promote the transition to the cashless digital payment systems. These include incentives for digital payments for day-to-day financial transactions like buying or selling goods/services, transferring money, etc. It would also provide logistic support for outreach activities at the district, taluk and panchayat level in form of the seed money of R5 lakh per district administration as a part of the communication campaign.