The Centre’s move to provide incentives for digital payments and launch lucky draws for those who switch from cash transactions post-demonetisation is straight out of the playbook of the States such as Kerala and Delhi.
Realising that the State’s indirect tax revenues fell inexplicably even as sales rose during the festive season starting Onam festival, the Kerala government had launched the Grand Kerala Shopping Festival (GKSF) in 2007, with rewards and lucky draw coupons for all “sales made with bills”.
In its latest edition that concluded in January, the two-month GKSF created a special programme to promote digital payments, including a separate lucky draw for cashless payments that had a grand prize of Rs. 1.5 crore, and several sops from banks to persuade merchants to install point-of-sales devices.
Last October, the Delhi government launched a programme to encourage consumers to purchase with bills, thought it has not yet introduced a digital component to it.
The scheme, called “Bill Banvao, Inaam Pao” (Get a bill and earn award), offered a maximum prize of Rs. 50,000 to consumers who insisted on getting a bill from retailers and uploaded the bill’s details on a designated website or WhatsApp account.
According to a report by the Centre for Digital Financial Inclusion that assisted the previous Oommen Chandy-led government in implementing the GKSF model in cashless mode, the number of first-time card users, total card transactions as well as number of unique merchants reporting sales saw a significant spike in the latest shopping festival.
Different models
Over 65,000 merchants registered for the event, with the State Bank of India and Federal Bank roped in as lead banks for the digital component, each of them adopting a different model to promote cashless transactions.
The State authorities, on their part, set up a 15-line call centre to help merchants interested in joining the digital payment initiative and held focus sessions with 300 merchant associations.
The results, according to a CDFI study of Federal Bank data, were impressive — the number of first-time card users grew by 28 per cent from the same period of the festival a year ago, the average number of card transactions rose by 44 per cent, and merchants reporting sales surged by nearly 11 per cent compared to the period prior to the festival.
