Here’s What Mumbai’s Train Commuters Think Of The Government’s Digital Payments Push

Over the course of the last month, the Central Government has begun to use the demonetisation drive as a rallying cry for digital payments. Most recently, on Thursday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a slew of measures that were aimed at incentivising the use of digital money.

Though digital payments have indeed spiked on account of the unavailability of cash, some have argued that a large portion of India’s population remains firmly dependent on cash.

Aayush Ailawadi and Alex Mathew decided to take a short trip in one of the trains on Mumbai’s suburban rail network, the lifeblood of the city, to find out what commuters think of the measures that have been announced. Here’s what they found:

Below are the list of measures announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley:

• Customers who pay for fuel at pumps through digital means will get a 0.75 percent discount
• Two point of sale machines will be provided to each village with a population of up to 10,000. This will receive support from the financial inclusion fund
• Rural and cooperative banks will provide Rupay Kisan cards to 4.32 lakh farmers for use at point of sale terminals, ATMs and micro ATMs, supported by NABARD and co-operative banks
• Monthly and seasonal tickets of suburban railway networks will get an up to 0.5 percent discount if paid for digitally. This will be applicable from January 1, 2017 and the discount will start from the Mumbai suburban railways
• Digitally booked rail tickets will get a Rs 10 lakh accident insurance cover
• Railways will offer a discount of 5 percent for digital payment of paid services like accommodation and catering, offered through its affiliates like Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation
• If insurance policies are bought from customer portals of public sector insurers, and premium are paid online, there will be a 10 percent discount on general insurance, 8 percent discount on life insurance premium
• Public sector banks will ensure that merchants do not have to pay more than Rs 100 per month for PoS terminals, micro ATMs and mobile PoS
• Transaction fees or MDR will not be applicable for transactions with central government, or companies owned by it
• For payment of toll on national highways, a discount of 10 percent will be offered to those using RFID card/Fast Tags