CAIT supports 30 billion Digital Payments target of Government of India

Confederation of All India Traders supports 30 billion Digital Payments target of Government of India 

·         Recommends policy support to accelerate acceptance of Bharat QR as an imperative for India’s transition to a less cash economy 

·         Proposes incentives for consumers and GST rebates for merchants for adoption of Bharat QR 

In support of the Union Government’s target of 30 billion digital transactions in FY 18-19, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) today strongly advocated for educating merchants and consumers to use "Bharat QR" for making payments for business transactions and personal usage. The CAIT has launched a nationwide campaign to popularise Bharat QR, prompting the trading community to empower itself by embracing this payment solution.

Addressing media at a press conference today in New Delhi, CAIT Secretary General Mr. Praveen Khandelwal emphasized that Bharat QR will play a pivotal role in encouraging over 60 million micro and small merchants to accept digital payments. Bharat QR, the world’s first asset light, interoperable payment solution, offers seamless, safe and secure transactions to both merchants and consumers. QR Code (Quick Response Code) is a combination of tag values which processes transactions using ‘Scan & Pay’ when scanned from a mobile Banking Application.

Mr. Khandelwal said that in view of the fact that the Government is all set to push digital payments in the country with the recent decision of GST Council to offer incentives for usage of digital payments in GST transactions, it is important for the traders to equip themselves with the available digital payment systems. And therefore, Bharat QR is the best alternate among all digital payment solutions. Realising the importance of digital payments as the future of business, the CAIT has launched a nationwide awareness and educational campaign.

The campaign kicked off today with the announcement and will continue till 2^nd October across the country. During the campaign, the CAIT will train 1,000 traders as Master Trainers to take the campaign further down the line. It will hold around 300 seminars, workshops and conferences in different cities, imparting education on Bharat QR. 

Mr. Khandelwal further said “Usage of POS terminals costs bank rentals and other expenses for the traders whereas Bharat QR is simply a unified code made available through a bank having no rentals or other charges. It is important that the Government pushes for one common national QR code standard as per the Bharat QR specifications. Acceptance of Bharat QR by the community of 60 million micro and small merchants will be an important enabler to meet the Government’s target of 30 billion digital transactions. We urge the Government to provide the policy support and incentives to accelerate the acceptance of Bharat QR.”  

At the press conference, CAIT made the following recommendations to the Government to expedite acceptance of Bharat QR by micro and small merchants:- 

• One QR code for India – Bharat QR and all closed loop QRs should be migrated to Bharat QR specifications
• Drive deployment and transaction targets specifically for Bharat QR to banks 
• Remove the additional factor of authentication for Bharat QR transactions
• All new current and savings accounts of merchants to be given Bharat QR by default in the welcome kit by banks 
• Existing current or savings accounts of merchants to be given Bharat QR over the next 2 years
• Incentivize consumers and provide GST rebates to merchants for activation of Bharat QR 

Due to its low cost of deployment and ease of use, Bharat QR has the potential to transform the Indian payments landscape as a “Made in India” solution to drive Digital India.