NITI Aayog announces daily, weekly, and mega-awards on digital transactions to promote cashless payments!.

The National Institute for Transforming India(NITI) Aayog, the government's policy think-tank, on Thursday announced a lottery with daily, weekly and mega awards for consumers and merchants, to encourage a transition to digital payments+ .

The awards will be offered through two schemes - the Lucky Grahak Yojna for consumers, and the Digi-dhan Vyapar Yojna for merchants at an estimated cost of Rs 340 crore, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said.

Both the schemes will cover small transactions between Rs 50 and Rs 3,000 to encourage every section of the society+ to move to digital payments+ , Kant explained.

Terming it a 'Christmas Gift' to the country, Kant said the first draw will happen on December 25 and the mega-draw on April 14, the birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar.

"(The) focus of Lucky Grahak and Digi-Dhan Yojana is on poor, middle class and small businesses so as to bring them into digital payments revolution," he added.

The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) will implement the schemes.





Weekly and daily awards

Under the Lucky Grahak Yojna, 15,000 winners will get cashback prizes of Rs 1000 each every day starting on December 25 (Christmas) and ending on April 14 next year (Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanthi).

In addition, there will be weekly awards worth Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 for 7000 people.

Under the Digi Dhan Vyapar Yojna, 7000 winning merchants will receive weekly prizes worth Rs 50,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs 2,500.

Mega awards

In addition, mega-awards will be announced on April 14 for both consumers and merchants.

For consumers, the first prize is Rs 1 crore, the second prize is Rs 50 lakh, and the third is Rs 25 lakh. For merchants, the prizes are Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh, and Rs 5 lakh, respectively.

There will be a random draw of digital transaction IDs to select awardees, Kant explained.

All forms of transactions through UPI, USSD, Aadhar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) and RuPay cards will be eligible for lucky draws.

However, NITI Aayog also said the scheme isn't applicable for transactions done through private credit cards and e-wallets of private companies

NITI Aayog had requested National Payments Corporation of India to conceptualize and launch a new scheme to incentivize digital payments. NPCI is a not-for-profit company which is charged with the responsibility of helping India become a cashless society.

Giving details on digital transactions post demonetisation of old Rs 500/1000 notes, Kant said PoS transactions witnessed a jump+ of 95 per cent since November 8 (till December 7).

RuPay Card transactions were up 316 per cent and e-wallet 271 per cent, while both UPI about and USSD witnessed increase of about 1,200 per cent each.

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