NITI Aayog’s schemes promoting digital payments reward 7.6 lakh citizens with Rs 117cr

As of February 7, 2017, the NITI Aayog’s two schemes to fuel digital payments have disbursed reward money of Rs 117.4 crore to over 7.6 lakh consumers and merchants, data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has revealed.

In addition to the daily cashbacks to 15,000 consumers, 90 consumers and 3,000 merchants have won Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000 each as weekly prize money for adopting the digital mode of payments.

The schemes, named Lucky Grahak Yojana and DigiDhan Vyapar Yojana, were launched on December 25, 2016, and shall be functional until April 14, 2017. The schemes are aimed at incentivising both consumers and merchants to promote digital payments.

There are 15,000 daily winners qualifying for a total prize money of Rs 1.5 crore. In addition to this, there are over 14,000 weekly winners qualifying for a total prize money of over Rs 8.3 crore every week.

Customers and merchants using the RuPay card, Bharat Interface for Money/Unified Payments Interface (BHIM/UPI), USSD-based *99# service, and Aadhaar-enabled payment service (AePS) are eligible for winning daily and weekly lucky draw prizes.

The NPCI is also working with the government to organise Digi Dhan Melas at 110 locations until April 14, 2017, by demonstrating the above-mentioned products to promote digital payment. As of February 7, 2017, 45 Digi Dhan Melas had been organised.

The latest data shows that Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka have emerged as top five states with the maximum number of winners. The winners of the two schemes belong to diverse socio-economic backgrounds, from farmers, merchants, and small entrepreneurs to professionals, housewives, and retired persons.

All transactions by consumers and merchants from November 9, 2016, until April 14, 2017, will be eligible for winning prizes under the scheme. The lucky draws are conducted at different centres on each day by senior NPCI officials in the presence of senior ministers from the Government of India, representatives of the NITI Aayog, and the general public. The schemes have a total outlay of Rs 340 crore of which Rs 300 crore will be spent on consumers and merchants while the remaining Rs 40 crore on awareness and publicity. Total winners under the scheme are expected to be over 18.75 lakh.