It's time for introspection a year after demonetization where Goa aspired to be the first state to go cashless. It's time to look back and analyze on the shortcomings and on what went wrong after the then chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar went into an overdrive and announced that the State will be the first to go cashless in the country. It's time to reflect on this announcement that shook all Goans soon after the jolt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's biggest-ever demonetisation exercise on November 8, 2016 where Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were banned from use.
One year later nothing much has changed, except for the fact that chief minister Manohar Parrikar has assured that by the turn of this financial year, around 95 percent of his government departments will go cashless. On the ground, Goa's cashless drive has not tasted much of a success and there continue to be gaping holes in the system. Most of Goa's small traders deal in cash, which includes the market vegetable vendor and the tea stall owner. The government has failed to reach out to these ground-level players. The small trader who has never operated a swipe machine or the chaiwalla who finds it hard to believe that payment for a cup of tea could be made at a click of a button are not on board. These continue to remain tough challenges.
The roadblocks to the cashless route continue to remain intact one year later. A major thaw in plastic money transactions is the surcharge that banks levy on the trader for using swipe machines. The smaller businesses are not in a position to absorb the levy and prefer to stay out of the cashless system. On the other side, there are issues with the swipe machines too. The debit-credit system of cards is sometimes flawed and this breaks down the confidence of the people involved. Further, there is a huge shortage of swipe machines and banks are not in a position to offer them on demand, except for a few. The BHIM Mobile App developed by National Payments Corporation of India, based on the Unified Payment Interface may be a good initiative, but it has a long way to go before it catches the fancy of traders.
The cashless initiative has to be backed by incentives. A classic case would be shopping portals like Amazon and Flipkart which have a mobile app where cash incentives are on offer for those using the app. This is a clear strategy to draw the customer towards their mechanisms. The state government needs to work on similar lines. Government's cashless focus appears to be restricted to its department for now. There's a lot of ground to be covered. While the government goes about its cashless agenda, we hope it also spares a thought for casinos also going cashless.
One year later nothing much has changed, except for the fact that chief minister Manohar Parrikar has assured that by the turn of this financial year, around 95 percent of his government departments will go cashless. On the ground, Goa's cashless drive has not tasted much of a success and there continue to be gaping holes in the system. Most of Goa's small traders deal in cash, which includes the market vegetable vendor and the tea stall owner. The government has failed to reach out to these ground-level players. The small trader who has never operated a swipe machine or the chaiwalla who finds it hard to believe that payment for a cup of tea could be made at a click of a button are not on board. These continue to remain tough challenges.
The roadblocks to the cashless route continue to remain intact one year later. A major thaw in plastic money transactions is the surcharge that banks levy on the trader for using swipe machines. The smaller businesses are not in a position to absorb the levy and prefer to stay out of the cashless system. On the other side, there are issues with the swipe machines too. The debit-credit system of cards is sometimes flawed and this breaks down the confidence of the people involved. Further, there is a huge shortage of swipe machines and banks are not in a position to offer them on demand, except for a few. The BHIM Mobile App developed by National Payments Corporation of India, based on the Unified Payment Interface may be a good initiative, but it has a long way to go before it catches the fancy of traders.
The cashless initiative has to be backed by incentives. A classic case would be shopping portals like Amazon and Flipkart which have a mobile app where cash incentives are on offer for those using the app. This is a clear strategy to draw the customer towards their mechanisms. The state government needs to work on similar lines. Government's cashless focus appears to be restricted to its department for now. There's a lot of ground to be covered. While the government goes about its cashless agenda, we hope it also spares a thought for casinos also going cashless.
