New Delhi: In order to facilitate payments through debit and credit cards, as well as through other electronic gateways, the government proposes to give an income-tax rebate to those who make such payments by electronic means.
The draft put up by the government also suggests that transaction charges could be removed for payments at petrol pumps, gas agencies and for buying railway tickets. To give consumers confidence to use electronic payment systems, it is proposed in case of fraudulent transactions, money will be credited back to the customer’s account.
However, such funds will be blocked and be released only after an investigation is completed, for which a three-month deadline will be set. In his Budget speech, finance minister Arun Jaitley had said the government will offer incentives to encourage the usage of cards to curb black money entering the system.
This will also help reduce the impact of counterfeit money in the Indian economy. The draft said it could be made mandatory that high-value transactions, amounting to Rs 1 lakh and above, could be made only through cards or electronic means.
Also, in order to discourage cash payments, a “cash handling charge” could be introduced on transactions above than a specified level.
