Bowing down to public sentiments, Goa government has today clarified that those businesses not going cashless by December 31 this year will not be penalised or punished per say.
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar was allaying fears that traders, hawkers and vendors who are not able to shift to cashless options in their businesses need not worry if they fail to do so by year-end.
"To go cashless is an appeal. I am clarifying again. We have said that we are not going to be cent per cent cashless," he said.
Goa can do it as the state is having high literacy rate and also percolation of Information Technology is higher, Parsekar said.
"But that does not mean that the state will become cashless by December 31. We will not be acting against the shopkeepers or hawkers who fail to implement the cashless concept," the Chief Minister clarified.
"Butwe appeal to the people that there should bemaximum use of point of sale machines and also use of mobile software. We should try. There will be no compulsion from government side," he said.
"No one should misunderstand the concept," the chief minister said pointing out that some people were trying to earn political mileage from the issue.
"Central government has high expectation from a state like Goa. Goa can do it but that does not mean we will be troubling people to go cashless," he added.
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Meanwhile, the BJP today advised Parsekar against setting a deadline for the implementation of the concept.
"We congratulate our Prime Minister, Defence Minister as well as Chief Minister for introducing cashless society concept in the State, but we feel there should not be any time bar to introduce it across all sections of traders," BJP state unit general secretary Sadanand Tanawade told reporters here.
He said the party leaders today called upon the chief minister and requested him to postpone the December 30 deadline to go cashless.
"Let us first educate people about the cashless concept," Tanawade said.
He said, "Once you set up a deadline to implement cashless transaction, the officers might go and trouble those people who are not able to learn or adopt it (the transaction). Officers usually go by what has been directed to them."
Tanawade, however, said it was easier to educate people about the concept in Goa as it is a small state. He added that "there should not be a disappointment amongst people about the concept".
Noting that the youth have already shifted to cashless transaction in their day-to-day dealings, the BJP leader said others should learn from them.
