Online payments have never been this lucrative!

This is just another plan to keep tab on the flow of black money. A draft Cabinet note, which contains as many as 30 measures to encourage e-payments, has been circulated by the Finance Ministry.

Therefore, consumers and merchants can look forward to a host of incentives such as fee waivers and tax benefits on cashless payments coming their way soon.

The proposal will be presented before the Union Cabinet after the Finance Ministry incorporates comments and suggestions made by various ministries and departments on the draft.

The note already included the public feedback on a draft proposal for facilitating e-transactions, which was put up in the public domain in June and suggestions were invited through the government's MyGov.in platform.

An official said: "The 30 points include removal of different kind of fees and charges on e-transactions and providing incentive for such payment. We will take it to Cabinet after comments are received from concerned departments."

It is proposed to provide income tax benefits to people paying a portion of their expenditure either through debit or credit cards and do away with transaction charges for purchase petrol, gas and rail tickets.

All high value transactions exceeding Rs 1 lakh will have to be done via electronic mode and the utility service providers will be encouraged to give incentives for card payments.

Incentives would also be given to shopkeepers accepting major portion of their payments through plastic money.

The proposal follows an announcement made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech, wherein he had mentioned that one way to curb the flow of black money was to discourage transactions in cash.

The Finance Ministry had in June put up for public comments the draft proposals for facilitating e-transactions.

(Image: Indiatimes)