VIJAYAWADA: Around Rs 1,600 crore was deposited and Rs. 400 crore exchanged across the counter in banks in Krishna district ever since the Union government declared Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes as illegal tender.
Similarly, given the cash shortage, the district has witnessed a sudden spurt in cashless transactions, even at public distribution system. Cashless transactions amounting to almost Rs. 17 lakh were recorded at fair price shops in the district.
Revealing the details at a press conference here on Thursday, district collector A Babu urged the people to shift from conventional payment methods to online and cashless transactions. He pointed out that according to the ongoing Smart Pulse Survey, 96 per cent of the people in the district have smartphones and stressed that it was time to move to cashless transactions.
On the rush at ATMs, he said of the 967 ATMs in the district, only 120 were reconfigured to issue Rs. 2,000 notes. He expressed the hope that it would be done soon.
The collector had earlier held a meeting with merchants’ associations and banks’ representatives and issued instructions regarding ‘digital transformation.’ He said banks’ representatives would be sent to all villages and municipalities and rythu bazaars to create awareness among people on the need to shift to cashless transactions.
All Mee Seva centres, SHGs and FP shops will promote cashless transactions, he said. To a query, he replied that micro ATMs and mobile ATMs will be arranged soon to help the people access cash easily. At the review meeting, the collector had advised the bankers and merchants to use POS machines for all their business transactions. Around 25,000 POS machines will be placed in all shops to do business only with debit and credit cards.
The collector further suggested that all the stakeholders, including the general public, could shift to cashless transactions in six ways - through national financial switch - which is connecting all ATMs to this network; Rupay cards, Aadhaar-enabled payment system, mobile USSD code for people who are not using smartphones, and unified payment interface (UPI).
Unified payment interface is a mobile application, which was developed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), an institution which is taking care of retail payments in India and also the operations and maintenance of ATMs. All smartphone users can install this application and perform transactions even for smaller amounts, he explained.
The collector said the total tax collections in the district after demonetisation had gone up. If around Rs 46 crore was received from panchayats, Rs 13 crore was collected by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation alone. The last date for payment of various taxes and bills using the old currency has now been extended to November 24.