Hyderabad: The government has drawn up a plan to procure one lakh point of sale devices and supply to small traders, whose turnover is between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 lakh to boost cashless transactions.
A decision on whether the devices should be sold at subsidised rates or for free is to be taken. The government plans to seek financial assistance from the Centre for the programme. Each PoS costs up to Rs 10,000.
Following the instructions of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, the finance department estimated that it would not require more than Rs 100 crore. It would have the benefits of bringing all traders under the tax net and check evasion.
As per the commercial taxes department, there are 1.87 lakh traders registered with government. It estimated that there are over 1 lakh traders outside the records.
“Demonetisation has changed the mindset of traders. They suffered huge losses with business coming to a halt due to the currency shortage. They are in favour of cashless transactions but are wary of purchasing PoS devices by spending '10,000. If the government supports them, they are willing to go for cashless transactions,” said an official in the finance department.
