Government offering 2% relief for GST digital payments

New Delhi – The taxpayers might have to pay less tax if they make digital payment. The GST Council had decided to offer 2% incentive to the taxpayers if they pay online. However, the bill must be up to ₹ 2,000 for someone to avail this incentive. This is a way to discourage people from making payment with cash.

As the sources say, the proposal might give the benefit of cash back or discount. However, the matter is still being discussed between the cabinet secretarial and finance ministry. The concept is to pay incentive to all kinds of digital payments. This concept is specially devised for the small transactions.

This is being done to turn India into a less cash transaction economy – said a close source. It is the IT ministry which is leading the efforts of incentivizing the digital payment. They have been monitoring the initiatives of the future electronic payments.

A meeting which took place recently has analyzed the digital payments after the demonetization period. This meeting was attended by the senior officials of government which included the finance ministry.

The PM himself has proposed to boost the electronic payments. This prompted the government to encourage with great acceptance. The PM addressed the issue on the 71st Independence Day and asked the nation to use digital facilities rather than using cash.

The GST Council has said that the action is being taken for the small transactions which are large in numbers. These are also preferred in cash type. The transactions, said the source, up to ₹ 2,000 are too high in numbers. They feel that with a promise of incentive the taxpayers would opt to use the digital mode rather than pay in cash. However, the source is unclear about the way using which the government would pay the incentive. The matter is still with the finance minister added the source.

The government is now considering some other incentives to encourage digital transactions. Some new measures will be announced soon enough to solidify the government’s decision to make India a less cash transaction nation.

The promise of incentive came at a time when the digital transaction has been reducing in number. In March, the number of digital transaction has picked up. However, it has fallen since the time cash has been made available.