Undue use of paper cash detrimental to society: Arun Jaitley

He said transformation of post offices into a bank will be the next revolution

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said excessive use of paper currency is detrimental to society and hoped banking transaction charges will fall with the entry of new players.

Expressing satisfaction that digitisation is expanding at a much faster space than expected, Jaitley said transformation of post offices into a bank will be the next revolution.

In an apparent reference to criticism of demonetisation by opposition parties, Jaitley said there would have been complaints even before cash or currency was invented and even if it gets eliminated “tomorrow”.

"In the context of demonetisation, the obvious attempt was that the extent of the paper currency must be replaced by digitised economy...this expansion is going to take place much faster than any commentators anticipated and the reasons are very obvious," he said after launching Airtel Payments Bank in New Delhi.