November 23, 2017:

Confederation of All India Traders had apprehended that to encourage digital transactions, Centre may withdraw the cheque book facility.

While refuting an earlier report that the cheque book facility would be withdrawn by the Govt to push digital transactions, the Ministry of Finance has on Thursday clarified that there is no such proposal under consideration before it.

Just last week, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal had said that in all probability, the Centre may withdraw the cheque book facility in the near future to encourage digital transactions.

The Ministry officials, in a couple of tweets, clarified that the government has no such intentions to withdraw the service.

The Finance Ministry further “emphasised that while the Government is committed to transform India into a less-cash economy and promote digital and electronic transactions through multi-pronged initiatives, but still the cheques shall remain an integral part of the payments landscape, and form the backbone of trade and commerce.”

The digital transactions rose after the government’s note ban exercise and e-payment companies too have since seen substantial jump in their businesses.

Just in the last 12 months, India saw over three times growth.

According to the data available with Payments Council of India, the growth rate of the digital payments industry, which was earlier in the range of 20-50 per cent, has grown post demonetisation to 40-70 per cent.

Owing to this most digital players in the industry have made multi-fold investments in the Digital payment sector in the last one year in infra, brand, marketing, creating awareness.

Source - ptinews.com