'Puducherry can easily migrate to cashless economy'

: The union territory of Puducherry could easily migrate to a cashless economy as 80 per cent of its population was iterate, Chief Secretary Manoj Parida said here today.
He said the demonetisation initiative aimed at checking counterfeit currency, wiping out black money and controlling terrorism and corruption,as pointed out by the Prime Minister.
Parida said that with 80 per cent of the population being literate in the Union Territory, there could be easy shift to the new approach without much hindrance.
"Puducherry could migrate to a cashless economy with almost the 13 lakh populationof the Union Territory having bank accounts", a release quoting him as having said.

He was speaking while chairing a meeting organised by the Lead Bank (Indian Bank) with outfits of traders, consumers, non governmental Organisations and students here today.
Parida asked government employees not to crowd ATMs and bank counters and urged them to use plastic Rupee, giving way to the underprivileged not having other mode of transactions.

He asked traders to take the assistance of banking personnel to migrate to cashless transaction and added that government had ordered supply of 500 OPS (On Spot Sale) machines for them
Finance Secretary V Candavelou emphasised the need to migrate to cashless transactions and said government receipt accounting system, an online portal, would soon be launched. The government would soon move towards electronic transfer transactions, he said.

The Goods and Services Tax,to be introduced from April 1 next year, would also usher in transformation, he said.
Convenor of the Lead Bank Anbu Kamaraj explained the various options for cashless transactions available at all the 236 bank branches here.
He also highlighted the security measures put in place for secure digital transactions.