Government brings out ‘Christmas Gift’ for Digital Payments

National Institute for Transforming India(NITI) Aayog, the government's policy think-tank has the announced daily, weekly & mega awards upto Rs. 1 crore to incentivize Digital Payments. The schemes are called Lucky Grahak & Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojana. Merchants and traders using digital transactions stand to win a prize of Rs. 50000, Rs. 5000 and Rs. 2500 weekly and 7000 traders will stand a change to win these prizes. Terming it a 'Christmas Gift' to the country, Kant said the first draw will happen on December 25 and the mega-draw on April 14, the birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar. "(The) focus of Lucky Grahak and Digi-Dhan Yojana is on poor, middle class and small businesses so as to bring them into digital payments revolution," said NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant. Under the Lucky Grahak Yojna, 15,000 winners will get cashback prizes of Rs 1000 each every day starting on December 25 (Christmas) and ending on April 14 next year (Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti). In addition, mega-awards will be announced on April 14 for both consumers and merchants. For consumers, the first prize is Rs 1 crore, the second prize is Rs 50 lakh, and the third is Rs 25 lakh. For merchants, the prizes are Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh, and Rs 5 lakh, respectively. There will be a random draw of digital transaction IDs to select awardees, Kant explained. All forms of transactions through UPI, USSD, Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) and RuPay cards will be eligible for lucky draws. However, NITI Aayog also said the scheme isn't applicable for transactions done through private credit cards and e-wallets of private companies. NITI Aayog had requested National Payments Corporation of India to conceptualize and launch a new scheme to incentivize digital payments. NPCI is a not-for-profit company which is charged with the responsibility of helping India become a cashless society. NITI Aayog announced a lottery with weekly, monthly and mega awards to incentivize cashless transactions. NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said the objective was to make digital payments a mass movement in the country. Stay updated on the go with GPlus News. Click here to download the app for your device.