Mumbai: Pitching for greater cashless banking transactions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said this can be the best solution for the problem of black money, even as he asked banks to look for ways to discourage people from investing huge amounts in gold.
Modi also asked banks to become socially more responsible and provide support to ‘swachhta' entrepreneurs or those setting up cleanliness and waste management ventures.
He said banks in India should compete for achieving maximum cashless transactions, as this would be the “best solution” to the problem of black money.
“Of many solutions to tame black money, cashless transaction is one of the very important solutions. This is a very big opportunity and we should promote this. People should inculcate the habit of cashless transaction,” he said. Black money has been a major political issue in the recent past, including in the Lok Sabha polls last year in which Modi led BJP and its allies to a landslide victory.
Modi also said Indians have a good habit of savings, but these savings have diverted to gold over the time as a measure of security and banks have a challenge to look into ways to discourage huge amounts of money being kept in gold. The Prime Minister said people in India had a propensity towards saving, but this was targeted towards gold.
“He thinks he should buy gold which can be needed at the times of crisis. I don't think out of 100 people, one person would feel the necessity of selling gold at the time of crisis...but it is a psychology.
“The challenge for banks was to assure people that a bank account would ensure easy access to their savings whenever required,” he said, while adding this could help banks become the agents of social transformation.
The Prime Minister was speaking at a function here this evening to dedicate an ‘ICICI Digital Village' to the nation.
ICICI Bank has adopted Akodara village in Gujarat to develop it into a ‘digital village' by providing facilities like cashless banking, e-health, as also digitised schools and mandis.
