‘Not difficult to have 50 pc cashless payments in Goa’

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday said it is not so difficult for Goa to have 50 per cent of cashless transactions, if certain bottlenecks are removed.

“It is not very difficult to attain 50 per cent cashless payment in Goa. How long it will take to achieve that level will depend on various bottlenecks that are currently existing in the state,” Parrikar told reporters here.

“For example, POS machines availability is getting strained. So, as and when more and more PoS machines will come, more and more transactions will shift to cashless,” the former Goa Chief Minister said. People have already shifted in a big way to cashless payments, he said, adding that at petrol pumps across the state almost 60 per cent transaction is through cards.

“Many people don’t know that to have a debit card, you don’t have to necessarily have an account. There are prepaid debit cards available,” he said.

Parrikar said when the concept of cashless society was introduced in the state last month, then the transactions were almost 20 per cent through cards.