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
