: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday said that Goa was moving in the direction of fewer cash transactions, making a departure from his earlier announcements that Goa will be the first State to go cashless.
Speaking to presspersons on the sidelines of a function in the city, he said making Goa a fully cashless State was not possible, desirable or intended. “So far, around 26,000 people had been sensitised to cashless transactions at various fora. Around 600 point-of-sale [PoS] machines have been established, 2,700 vendors have gone on UPI [unified payment interface] machines. So far, six or seven banks are active on it, and we want to increase the number of the banks,” Mr. Parrikar said.
The Minister said that from the circular issued earlier by the State Commercial Tax Department, it appeared that cashless transactions were compulsory, but this was not so.
The real aim
“We are promoting a ‘less cash’ society. Though the English word for the actual transaction is cashless, our target is to reduce the transactions in cash so that lots of transactions can take place through cards, UPI or any other e-wallets of banks. Fully cashless is not possible. It is not desirable nor intended. What is intended is to reduce the use of cash, and wherever possible start transactions through the digital mode.
“In Goa, we intend to take it [cashless transactions] to 50 per cent as early as possible, from about 15-20 per cent. There are so many difficulties in it and they are being surmounted,” he said.
After announcement of demonetisation of high value notes by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Parrikar had last month-end announced here that Goa could be the model State for cashless transactions. Replying to a question on the fate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) alliance in the context of the recent sacking of two MGP ministers and in the wake of the fast-approaching State Assembly polls, Mr. Parrikar, who is tallest BJP leader in the State, reiterated his party’s stand that the doors of BJP for its alliance partner MGP were still not closed.
On December 12, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar sacked the MGP Ministers after their public outburst seeking his ouster.
Later, Mr. Parrikar intervened, and saidit was a decision of the government and the alliance would continue.
MGP leaders have been maintaining that they will make their stand clear on the future of the alliance after the model code of conduct for elections was announced.
