Niti Aayog on Thursday announced awards for people making payments through digital means. The Aayog’s CEO Amitabh Kant made the key announcement in a press conference.
NITI Aayog Chairman Amitabh Kant, while making the announcement, said, “The government has initiated numerous steps to combat the scourge of corruption and black money in the last two and a half years. There has been a significant spurt in digital payments post demonetization.”
Kant said that ‘Lucky Grahak Yojana’ will encourage consumers while ‘Digi Dhan Vyapari Yojana’ will encourage merchants to transition to digital payments.
“We are launching ‘Lucky Grahak Yojna’ for consumers and ‘Digi Dhan Vyapari Yojna’ to encourage merchants to transition to digital payments,” Amitabh Kant, CEO Niti Ayog, said.
Under the Lucky Grahak Yojana, 15,000 winners will get Rs 1000 each every day starting on December 25 and ending on April 14 next year.
In addition, there will be weekly awards for 7000 people, and the the maximum prize is worth Rs 1 lakh. This scheme, too, will en
The scheme runs from December 25, 2016, to April 14, 2017. On April 14, a mega award of Rs 1 crore will be announced.
Under the Digi Dhan Vyapari Yojna, 7000 winning merchants will receive prizes worth up to Rs 50,000 every week, also within the same time frame.
In addition, mega-awards will be announced on April 14 for both consumers and merchants.
Both schemes will cover small transactions between Rs.50 and Rs.3000 to encourage every section of the society to move to digital payments.
In recent weeks, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also extolled the virtues of a cashless society, giving examples of beggars using ATM machines, and said any pain from a shortage of cash was temporary and that the move will benefit the country in the long run.
