'Banks want Budget to boost digital transactions, disincentivise cash'

Bankers have told Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that they want Budget 2017 to include provisions for promoting digital transactions and dis-incentivising usage of cash, said State Bank of India (SBI) Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya.

“…we have found that very large corporates while paying to class three, class four employee are still paying in cash. Now we are requesting that all large corporates and 100 per cent of government institutions must be mandated to pay all salaries /all payments through the transfer medium,” said Bhattacharya.

Transactions through SBI’s debit cards and downloads of its phone application, Buddy, have seen a significant jump since demonetisation. SBI has also installed at least 45,000 point of sale machines in the last 50 days. 

Further, Bhattacharya said that since SBI is still waiting for the government to notify the merger scheme, the merger of its five associate banks and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank could be pushed to the next financial year, reported The Indian Express.