Debit card charges dropped, farmers to get easier cash access

The queues outside banks and ATMs refused to die down on Wednesday. Most came back empty handed as ATMs were short of cash.

In a bid to soothe ruffled feathers, the government on Wednesday announced more steps to help farmers to meet their cash needs during the ongoing rabi season and directed banks to waive debit card transaction charges to encourage digital payment.

To ensure quick and unhindered flow of credit and cash to farmers during the current rabi season to deal with ban of Rs 500/1,000 notes, the government has allowed Nabard to disburse Rs 21,000 crore through cooperative banks to farmers.

Listing various measures taken by the government to incentivise digital transactions, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said the Railways has already waived service charges on online booking of tickets and telecom operators have agreed to make mobile banking services in feature phones free of cost till December 31.

While government departments and PSUs have been asked to make electronic payment to contractors and its employees, the road transport ministry has asked automobile manufacturers to install digital RFID tag on all new vehicles to enable cashless payment at toll plazas and checkposts.

Similarly, the government has doubled the monthly transaction limit through e-wallets to Rs 20,000. “All these measures are meant to promote digital penetration. It will also help farmers in the current rabi season to ensure a normal rabi crop on the back of good monsoon,” he said.

People can  deposit the now- invalid Rs 500 and Rs 1000 denomination currency notes in their Post Office savings accounts, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.

The ministry had on Tuesday said that Rs 500 and 1,000 rupee notes cannot be used for making deposits in small savings schemes.

“...the deposits into Post Office Savings Account are excluded from the bar imposed (on deposits of invalid notes in small saving schemes,” it said while clarifying Tuesday’s statement.

A Post Office Savings Account offers interest of 4 per cent per annum on individual or joint accounts. Such accounts can be opened with an amount as low as Rs 20.

Demonetisation has the support of over 93 percent of the 5,00,000 people who took the survey on the Narendra Modi app , according to a statement put out by Prime Minister Modi's website. The release said only 2 percent viewed the demonetisation negatively. An infographic on Modi's website said the survey on the Narendra Modi app received more than 400 responses every minute. 

The respondents were from 2000 different locations, with 93 percent of them in India. Also, 24 percent of those surveyed had responded in Hindi. The 5 lakh who reportedly took the survey did so in just over 15 hours. The numbers released were up to 3:30 pm on Wednesday, and the poll had begun at 10 am on Tuesday. "More than 90% of the respondents feel the government's move to tackle black money is above four-star rating. 73% of them give it five-star rating of brilliant," read the statement.