Modi government acting like salesman: Mamata

Taking a dig at Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's bunch of announcements designed to promote digital payments, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the central government was acting like a "salesman" in a desperate bid to divert from the main issue.

"The Govt is acting like a salesman. They have started selling products. They have started selling plastic cards," Banerjee said in a Twitter post.

"This is a desperate attempt to divert from the main issue. They are making more than a blunder a day #DeMonetisation," she said.

Banerjee's comments came shortly after Jaitley's media conference in which he underlined series of 11 measures designed to increase the pace of digital payments towards ushering in a cashless economy.

Among the measures, payment by card for petrol and diesel will enjoy a discount of 0.75 per cent.

Customers will be getting a higher discount on digital payment as all central undertakings will ensure that the transaction fee and merchant discount rate charges are waived on such payments.

Suburban railway monthly and season tickets bought through digital payment will get a 0.5 per cent discount, effective from January 1, 2017, beginning with the Mumbai suburban railway network.

Jaitley also announced that online payment for public sector insurance companies (life insurance and general insurance) will get 10 per cent discount for general insurance and 8 per cent discount for life insurance for new policies sold.

--IANS

ssp/vd