CAIT demands more incentives for use of debit, credit cards

Traders body CAIT on Wednesday demanded incentive scheme in the Budget for greater use of debit-credit cards and suggested a nominal ATM usage tax to discourage usage of cash.

“If the government imposes a nominal fee of 0.5 per cent per transaction at ATMs, it will generate a revenue of around Rs 11,000 crore which may be used for providing incentives on usage of payments through debit/credit cards,” stated traders body.

The banks are generally charging 0.75 per cent to 1 per cent on debit card and up to 2 per cent on credit card usage which is most discouraging.

The government must take initiatives to advise banks not to charge any transaction cost, but rather every use of digital payment must earn cashback reward, it said. Besides, CAIT also called for withdrawal of import duty on point of sale terminals.