In a move to push citizens towards less-cash and digital economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced lucky draw schemes, ‘Lucky Grahak Yojana’ and ‘Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojana’, for people who use digital payment methods including e-banking, mobile banking and e-wallets.
In his monthly radio address to the nation 'Mann Ki Baat', Modi on the occasion of Christmas said 15,000 people who use digital payment modes will be given a reward of Rs 1,000 each by a lucky draw. This amount will be transferred to their accounts.
"This scheme will last for 100 days (from Sunday). As such lakhs of people will get crores of rupees," Modi said.
The Prime Minister said there will be one big draw every week with winning price in lakhs.
"On the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti -- April 14 2017 -- we will be conducting a bumper draw in which the winning price will be in crores."
Earlier on December 15, the NITI Ayog announced daily, weekly and mega awards up to Rs 1 crore for consumers and merchants who take to digital payments.
"We are launching 'Lucky Grahak Yojna' for consumers and 'Digi Dhan Vyapari Yojna' to encourage merchants to transition to digital payments," Amitabh Kant had said.
The awards will be offered through two schemes - the Lucky Grahak Yohajana for consumers, and the Digi-dhan Vyapari Yojana for merchants.
“Under the Lucky Grahak Yojana, 15,000 winners will get Rs 1000 each every day starting on December 25 and ending on April 14 next year,” Amitabh Kant announced.
“In addition, there will be weekly awards for 7000 people, and the maximum prize is worth Rs 1 lakh,” he added.
“Under the Digi Dhan Vyapari Yojna, 7000 winning merchants will receive prizes worth up to Rs 50,000 every week, also within the same time frame,” NITI ayog CEO said, adding that on April 14, there would be mega awards worth Rs 1 crore, Rs 50 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, respectively, for consumers and Rs 50 Lakh, Rs 25 lakh and Rs 5 lakh for merchants.
All modes of digital payments - USSD, AEPS, UPI and RuPay Cards - will be eligible under the scheme. For merchants, transactions made on the POS machines installed at their locations would be considered.
Both schemes will cover small transactions between Rs.50 and Rs.3000 to encourage every section of the society to move to digital payments.
On December 8, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a raft of measures including discounts on online payments for insurance policies, rail tickets and highway toll charges as the government looked to promote digital cash post demonetisation.
(With IANS inputs)
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