The Centre has reportedly proposed tax benefits in terms of income tax rebates to consumers for paying a certain proportion of their expenditure through electronic means.
During his budget speech some months ago, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that one way to curb the flow of black money is to discourage transactions in cash.
It is being reported that the government proposal, introduced yesterday, recommends a slew of changes to incentivise electronic transactions.
The government has invited suggestions for the draft proposal on facilitating of electronic transactions till June 29.
It said the income tax benefits would be given to people making payments through credit or debit cards and doing away with transaction charges on purchase of petrol, gas and rail tickets with plastic money.
The government has also proposed to make it mandatory to settle high value transactions of more than one lakh rupees through electronic mode.
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In order to incentivise shopkeepers, it has proposed tax rebate to them provided they accept a significant value of sales through debit or credit cards.
The proposals are aimed at building a transactions history of an individual to enable improved credit access and financial inclusion, reduce tax avoidance and check counterfeiting of currency.