Digitisation push likely in Budget

To push digitisation and encourage cashless transactions, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley might accept some recommendations of two panels.

One on the subject was a committee of chief ministers to study digital payments, headed by Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. The second is headed by a former finance secretary, Ratan Watal.

Some recommendations by the Naidu panel include tax breaks for merchants accepting digital payments and for customers, tax incentives for makers of point-of-sale machines, micro-ATMs and biometric sensors. Interoperability of banks and post offices on Aadhaar-enabled payment systems (AEPS), a new fund for incentivising cashless transactions,