The Union Finance
Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee said that Aadhaar-Enabled
E-payment system would help not only in ensuring the timely payments directly
to the intended beneficiaries but would also help in reducing the time taken,
transaction costs and the leakages among others. The Finance Minister said that this
would also help in bringing transparency in the system and reducing avoidable
delays. The Finance
Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee was speaking after receiving the Final
Report of the Task Force on Aaadhar-Enabled Unified Payment Infrastructure presented to
him by Shri Nandan Nilekan,
Chairman UIDAI and the Task Force, here today. The Finance Minister Shri Mukherjee further said that pilot projects be upscaled and implemented in more areas and in
more States. So far pilot
projects are mainly implemented in the areas of LPG, kerosene, fertilizers and
MGNREGS which can be further expanded, the Minister added. Today’s meeting was also attended
among others by the Union Agriculture Minister, Shri Shard Pawar, Rural
Development Minister, Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State (Independent charge) for
Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri K.V. Thomas, the Minister
of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Shri Srikant Jena,
Secretaries of various Departments/Ministries and senior officials of Ministry
of Finance and Planning Commission among others.
Earlier, the Chairman UIDAI and the
Task Force, Shri Nandan Nilekani made
a presentation highlighting the various recommendations made by the Task Force
in its Final Report. Shri Nandan Nilekani said
that a strategic transformation of the governance can be brought about by the
usage of electronic payments across the board. Shri Nilekani said that the Task Force has
recommended a systematic platform based approach for the electronic payments.
The Task Force which was chaired by
Chairman, UIDAI, Shri Nandan Nilekani also
included Secretaries of the Departments of Expenditure, Financial Services,
Fertilisers, Petroleum, Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Consumer
Affairs among others. The members also included DG, UIDAI, Controller General
of Accounts (CGA), representatives from the NIC, RBI, IBA and NPCI. The Task
Force was constituted in September 2011 to recommend, inter alia, a detailed solution architecture for direct transfer
of subsidy through a payments bridge wherein funds can be transferred into any Aadhaar–enabled
bank account on the basis of the Aadhaar number.
The
salient recommendations of the Task Force include that beneficiaries of all
social safety net programs (MGNREGS, SSP, JSY, IAY, scholarships, etc.) and
recipients of direct subsidy transfer payments (LPG, Fertilisers, kerosene,
etc.) can greatly benefit by receiving their payments electronically, directly
into accounts of their choice at either banks or post offices. The Task Force
recommends that frontline development workers such as school teachers, Anganwadi workers, ASHA workers, etc. who often
do not receive their salaries on time, can also receive their salaries by
direct deposit into their accounts at banks and post offices. It also
recommends that a network of 10,00,000 interoperable microATMs operated by Business Correspondents
will have to be set-up across the country for people to access their accounts
at their own convenience. In order to set-up this network quickly, the Task
Force has recommended that a last mile transaction fee of 3.14% with a cap of
Rs.20 per transaction be paid by Government to banks for Government payments.
This will also lead to positive network externalities such as reduction in
leakages and achieving financial inclusion. In order to reduce the use of cash
in the economy, the Task Force also recommends that Government and Government
owned institutions accept electronic payments at all locations where they
collect payments from citizens, without any additional surcharge. The Task
Force also recommends that over a period of time, all payments of Government
over the sum of Rs.1,000 should be made or received
electronically. Transacting all Government business using electronic payments
will help reduce graft, and bring about greater transparency and
accountability. This reform will require a systematic platform-based approach
to payments. For this the Task Force has recommended the
adoption of the following:
1. Government e-Payments
Gateway (CGA): Enable straight-through processing and release of funds from
Ministry of Finance to the Line Ministries;
2. Aadhaar account opening and authentication
platform (UIDAI): Provides electronic account opening capability along with
real-time authentication of residents;
3. Aadhaar Payments Bridge (NPCI): An
interoperable system operated by NPCI for transferring funds into accounts at
banks and post offices on the basis of Aadhaar number;
4. MicroATM network (Banks and India Post): An
interoperable network of Business Correspondents deploying MicroATMs for balance query, deposits,
withdrawals, and remittances; and
5. Mobile banking: Provide self-service banking
capabilities through mobile phones for everyone. The Union Finance Minister
accepted the Task Force Report in-principle and stated that necessary steps
would be taken to implement the recommendations of the Report. The Task Force
report is available on the Ministry of Finance website i.e. www.finmin.nic.in
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