To promote digital economy, govt to begin lucky draw on Dec 25

The government said it will launch awards under the Lucky Grahak Yojana and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana in 100 cities over 100 days on December 25.

The first draw of the Lucky Grahak Yojana to provide a cashback of Rs 1,000 to 15,000 consumers every day for the next 100 days will be launched on December 25, 2016 in New Delhi, the Niti Aayog said in a statement.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Minister of Electronics & IT Ravi Shankar Prasad will inaugurate the first draw of lots in Delhi.

To create awareness in different parts of the country, this event would be followed in 100 different cities across India over the next 100 days until March, Niti Aayog said.

Winners will be selected on a daily and weekly basis under the Lucky Grahak Yojana and weekly basis under the Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana respectively, leading up to a mega draw on April 14, 2017, thereafter the scheme shall be reviewed for further implementation.

With the goal of ensuring that easy and user-friendly methods of digital payments become a mass movement in India, the government had announced a slew of incentives to encourage general public to move from cash to a digital platform, it added.

Thus discounts will now be given for payments made on a digital platform at petrol stations, for insurance premium, tolls at national highways and for railway tickets.

The statement further said to reduce transaction costs of digital payments several fees and charges being levied so far by banks and on various government portals have either been reduced or done away with.

Besides, schemes have also been launched to improve supply of cards and POS machines in rural areas.

Niti Aayog, along with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) as its implementation partner, launched two major schemes - Lucky Grahak Yojana for consumers and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana for merchants.

By providing monetary rewards for undertaking Digital Transactions made with Rupay cards, AEPS, UPI Apps and USSD, these schemes attempt to attract general public and facilitate significant behavioural change among public, the NITI Aayog said.

Niti Aayog expressed hope that large sections of the population would be able to shift from a cash based to a digital platform.

In the long-term such a mass movement is expected to shift large sections of the consumer and producer sections which was hitherto in the informal sector to the formal fold of the economy, it noted.