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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