The Committee on Digital
Payments constituted by the Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs
under the Chairmanship of Shri. Ratan P. Watal, Principal Advisor, NITI Aayog
and former Finance Secretary to the Government of India today submitted its
Final Report to the Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley in his office in
national capital. In its Report, the Committee has recommended that a medium
term strategy for accelerating growth of Digital Payments in India with a
regulatory regime which is conducive to bridging the Digital divide by
promoting competition, open access & interoperability in payments. The
Report recommends inclusion of financially and socially excluded groups and
assimilation of emerging technologies in the market, while safeguarding
security of Digital Transactions and providing level playing to all
stakeholders and new players who will enter this new transaction space. It has
suggested inter-operability of the payments system between banks and non-banks,
up-gradation of the digital payment infrastructure and institutions and a
framework to reward innovations and for leading efforts in enabling digital
payments.
This Committee was seized of the developments
following the decision of the Government to cancel legal tender character of
currency of high denominations. The Committee has calibrated its
recommendations accordingly and has provided a suitable framework for smooth
and speedy transition towards a Digital Payments Economy.
The Committee had earlier submitted
an Interim Report to Ministry of Finance on 21st November 2016.
Towards finalization of the Report,
the Committee engaged extensively with all stakeholders and technology groups
including Reserve Bank of India, State Governments, Comptroller Auditor General
of India, Payment companies, Technology Companies and the Academia.
Earlier, the Ministry of
Finance, Department of Economic Affairs had constituted a Committee on Digital
Payments to review the payment systems in the country and to recommend
appropriate measures for encouraging Digital Payments. The Committee was
constituted on 23rd August 2016 under the Chairmanship of Shri. Ratan P. Watal,
Principal Advisor, NITI Aayog and former Finance Secretary to the Government of
India.
The terms of reference and
composition of this Committee were as follows:
Terms of Reference:
·
To study and recommend need for
charges, if any, in the regulatory mechanism and any legislation, relevant for
the purpose of promotion of payments by digital modes
·
To study and recommend ways for
leveraging Unique Identification Number or any other proof of identity for
authentication of card/digital transactions and setting up of a Centralised KYC
Registry;
·
To study introduction of single
window system of Payment Gateway to accept all types of Cards/ Digital Payments
of Government receipts;
·
To study feasibility and framing
rules for creating a payments history of all Digital Payments and create
necessary linkage between payments transaction history and credit information;
·
To study and recommend various
measures to incentivize transactions through cards and digital means.
·
To study global best practices in
payments including initiatives taken by various Governments/ Government
Agencies
·
To identify market failure (s), if
any, along with suitable interventions that may be implemented to promote
payment by card/digital means
·
To identify regulatory
bottlenecks, if any, and suggest changes to promote payment by card/ digital
means
·
To study and make recommendations
on any other matter related to promotion of payments through Cards and Digital
Means
Composition of the
Committee
Members of this Committee
were: Shri H. R. Khan, Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India;
Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management; President,
NASSCOM; Chairman, Indian Banks Association; Chairman, Payments Council of
India; President. Internet and Mobile Association of India; Chairman, Central
Board of Direct Taxes; Director General, Unique Identification Authority of
India; Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India; and Joint Secretary,
Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. The Committee was also
supported by Shri. B.N. Satpathy, Consultant, Ms. Deepika Srivastava, OSD and
Shri. Suneet Mohan, Young Professional from NITI Aayog.
The National Institute of
Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) and Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) programme
team headed by Shri. Ashish Aggarwal acted as the secretariat for this
Committee. The team also included Shri. Pratik Datta, Shri. Aditya Kumar Rajput
& Shri. Indrajeet Sarkar.
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DSM/MS