BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan today said that the cash crunch situation in the state will improve with the availability of more Rs 500 notes from Sunday.
Accusing the state government of creating confusion among the people, Pradhan said, Rs 500 notes will be available in the state from tomorrow. He, however, advised the pepole not hoard more money.
Pradhan's statement comes a day after Finance Minister Pradip Kumar Amat informed the Assembly that the state is facing acute shortage of small denomination currency notes of Rs 100 and Rs 500.
Countering Amat, Pradhan said aparat from commercial banks over 6,000 common Service centres (CSC) are providing banking services in gram panchayats without bank branches through banking correspondents.
The Bank Mitras in unbanked areas are making people aware about use of mobile phones for cashless transaction, he added.
The Union Minister was speaking at the sidelines of a function here.
He launched the customer awareness campaigns for digital transactions at a city outlet of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) here.
With the introduction of cashless payment options like credit and debit cards, e-Wallet and loyalty cards at retail outlets, Pradhan underlined the commitment of the government towards moving to a cashless economy.
The digital modes of transactions are more convenient as compared to cash-based transactions and there is a need to make the common people aware about ease of using digital methods, he said.
Pradhan said that the objective of this campaign to move towards digital transaction and that transition will be towards less cash and then towards cashless.
There are 1465 retail outlets (ROs) in the state out of which 857 ROs have point of sale (POS) provision and balance 600 ROs will be have similar provisions in consultation with public sector banks very soon.
Earlier, it was 10 percent cashless transaction in the state and it has been increased to 30 percent. In Bhubaneswar it has been increased to 42 percent since its implementation.