Post Demonetisation Reports: 9 Ways for Indians to Save Money Following Jaitley’s Incentives

One month post demonetisation, finance minister Arun Jaitley offers lucrative discounts and incentives on digital transactions.
One month post demonetisation, finance minister Arun Jaitley offers lucrative discounts and incentives on digital transactions.

Out of cash? Don’t worry! One month post demonetisation, union finance minister Arun Jaitley announced reasonable measures to incentivise digital payments. If you don’t feel like standing in bank or ATM queues, here’s how you can save money in 9 different ways, following Jaitley’s announcements.

  1. Avail Discounts on Fuel

According to Jaitley, about 4.5 crore Indians buy fuel (diesel and petrol) worth Rs. 1,800 every day. In last one month, digital payments witnessed an upward trend by 40%. Considering this, fuel will cost 0.75% less if payments are made through state run e-wallets and cards.

  1. Cheap Railway Bookings

Around 80 lakh passengers buy rail tickets on suburban railways, the purchase amounting to Rs. 2,000 crores per year. To make it swifter and easier, Indian Railways will offer a discount up to 0.5% on seasonal and monthly tickets, starting from January 1, 2017. This offer is valid on digital bookings only. Not only this, regular railway passengers will get an accidental cover of Rs. 10 lakh.

IR is urging passengers to go cashless by offering discounts up to 5% on catering services, retiring rooms and railway accommodation, provided you book them online. The idea is to build up a cashless railway network to discourage pick pocketing.

A cashless society to emerge soon, post demonetisation.
A cashless society to emerge soon, post demonetisation.
  1. Pay shopping bills via PoS Machines

Modi government is likely to distribute about 10,000 PoS machines in 1 lakh villages to discourage cash transactions. These machines will be funded through NABARD that will extend financial support to rural banks. At least 2 PoS machines will be dispatched to each village having population less than 10,000. Government will prepare farmers to pay milk, ration, crop seed bills and cooperative society loans through PoS. If successfully implemented, the scheme will benefit 75 crore villagers in India.

  1. Use Kisan Credit Card for Agricultural Resources

Government is encouraging Cooperative and Regional Rural banks to issue 4.32 crore Kisan card to farmers. This card will help farmers purchase seed, fertilizers and pesticides using credit card. It can be used in Micro ATMs and POS machines too.

  1. Road Travel

Road travellers that pay toll tax via prepaid cards can get up to 10% discount on all national highways. This offer is valid on Fast Tags and RFID cards.

  1. Get Insured to Save More

This is the mother of all schemes post demonetisation. If you wish to save money in the long run, you can avail lucrative discounts worth 8% on life insurance and 10% on general insurance. Not only this, if you buy tickets online, you can get free accidental insurance worth 10 lakhs. All government insurance companies including LIC will provide this benefit.

In order to build up a corruption-less, cash less society, we must remove these barriers hampering growth.
In order to build up a corruption-less, cash less society, we must remove these barriers hampering growth.
  1. Free of charge PSU Transactions

Public Sector Units and Central government run organizations won’t charge transaction fees on digital payments anywhere. These expenses will be borne by the government. The ruling BJP has directed state governments to absorb all MDR charges and transaction fee associated with digital payments.

  1. Online Shopping

Earlier, the government had imposed 15% service tax on online transactions. However, one month post demonetisation, they’ve made all credit and debit card transactions free. The maximum limit of transaction is Rs. 2,000.

  1. Buy PoS to save Money

Public sector banks are instructed to issue 6.5 lakh machines to merchants in order to promote digital transactions. Earlier the merchants had to pay monthly rentals for keeping this machine. Now, they’ll pay not more than Rs. 100. This step has been taken to bring all big and small merchants on a common digital payment eco system.

So, this is how you can save money in everyday life. While the public may find it troublesome, especially in rural areas where people are not well-versed with technology, the Centre thinks it’s an important step towards digital revolution. This will make economy visible and transparent in future.

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