When a customer uses a credit and debit card to purchase of goods or services, merchants are charged a merchant discount rate (MDR) by the card-issuing banks.75 per cent of the sale price to consumers on purchase of petrol and diesel through digital means. People will get a five per cent discount on digital payments for catering, accommodation and retiring rooms, among others, being offered by the Indian Railways through its affiliated entities or corporations. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: To encourage people to go cashless, the Centre on Thursday announced discounts for buying petrol, diesel, railway tickets and catering, insurance from PSUs insurers and national highway toll through digital means like online banking, credit and debit cards and e-wallets.

 About 70 per cent of all transactions are less than Rs 2,000.5 per cent to customers for monthly or season tickets purchases from January 1, 2017 if the payment is made through digital means.The Centre will advise public sector banks that merchants should not be required to pay more than Rs 100 per month as monthly rental fees for PoS terminals/micro ATMs or mobile POSs to bring small merchants on board the digital payments ecosystem. All railway passengers buying online ticket will get a free accident insurance cover of up to Rs 10 lakhs. However, this waiver will be limited to payments upto Rs 2,000 in a single transaction. 

I may only clarify that merely depositing money in the bank doesn’t mean that it changes colour from black to white. TheRBI had said on Wednesday that nearly Rs 11.State-owned petrol pumps will give a discount of 0.Finance minister Arun Jaitley said petrol and diesel worth Rs 1,800 crores is sold per day, out of which nearly 20 per cent was being paid through digital means.44 lakh crores junked notes were back in the system. In November it had increased to 40 per cent, and cash transactions of Rs 360 crore per day had got shifted to cashless transaction methods, said the finance minister. Mr Jaitley said the state governments are also being advised that they should consider absorbing the transaction fee charges related to digital payments made to them and that consumers should not be asked to bear it. Its tax liability will still remain because what is unexplained would still remain taxable,” he said. He said the incentive scheme has the potential of shifting at least 30 per cent more customers to digital payment means, which he said will further reduce the cash requirement of nearly Rs 2 lakh crores per year at petrol pumps. The finance minister said Central government departments and PSUs will ensure that transaction fee charges that are associated with payments through digital means will not be passed on to consumers, and all such expenses shall be borne by them. 

Mr Jaitley said around 80 lakh passengers use season or monthly tickets on the suburban railways, largely in cash, spending nearly Rs 2,000 crores per year.85 lakh crores out of the Rs 15.Service tax waived for credit/debit card transactions upto Rs 2,000 Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.The government has also waived service tax on debit and credit card transactions of upto Rs 2,000.With 76 per cent of the old currency coming back into the banking system, Mr Jaitley warned that mere depositing of old notes in the banks will not change the money from "black” to "white”, and that tax liability would remain on all unexplained funds.Mr Jaitley said for toll payments at toll plazas on national highways using a RFID card or "fast tags”, a discount of 10 per cent will be available to users. In order to encourage merchants to accept card payments, the government has waived service tax on MDR

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Mayor Snehal Ambekar visited the Britannia pumping station on Saturday. So far, four pumping stations, Haji Ali, Irla, Love Grove and Cleveland, out of proposed eight have been commissioned by the BMC.Every year, Hindmata and its surrounding areas get flooded during the monsoon, especially during high tide, which brings life to a standstill. The pumping station will be commissioned before the monsoon. Work on the Britannia pumping station is in the final stages and it will be operational this monsoon.According to civic officials, the work of setting up pumps at Britannia is in the final stage and will be completed by the end of this month. File picture of flooding at Hindmata in Parel. The BMC has planned to construct eight pumping stations under the project.When operational, the Britannia pumping station will bring relief to 10 major chronic flooding spots like Hindmata, Parel, Lalbaug, Byculla, Kalachowki, Abhyuday Nagar etc. The Mumbai Port Trust has given a 2,200-sq-metre plot on rent basis to the BMC for this pumping station for a period of 30 years. But the pumping station at Mogra (Andheri) is still awaiting environmental clearances. The Gazdarband pumping station work at Santa Cruz has started, while the Maharashtra Costal Zone Management Authority has given its NOC to the Mahul pumping station. The Rs 115 crore pumping station will have six pumps with the total capacity of discharging water at 36 cubic metres per second.

 Hindmata area, which is notorious for water logging during the monsoon, is expected to be free of flooding problems this year.The Britannia pumping station has been constructed under the Brihanmumbai Storm Water Disposal System project, which is being implemented to prevent flooding and stagnation of water in low-lying areas of the city.

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