First Side :
An expert committee on household finances
, commissioned by RBI and chaired by Tarun Ramdorai , made following observations :
·
Indians have a globally high 95 % of their wealth
parked in physical assets ( 77 % in property , 7 % in durables and 11 % in gold
), with only 5 % in financial products
·
Focussed as they are on
property investments, very few Indians are investing
towards retirement , with 77 % of the households failing
to plan for pensions
·
Even with vastly improved access to financial products under the PM
Jan Dhan Yojana, savers shy away from financial products due to the high transaction costs, their own unpredictable
income streams and lack of trust . Most household lean on informal sources for
emergency loans at high costs
=======================================================
SECOND SIDE :
Times of India ( 28 Aug ) carries following report :
You may soon need to shell out less if you pay digitally
The government is looking at giving a 2 % incentive – over the applicable GST tax rate – in case of
digital payments where the bill is up to Rs 2,000 , in a move aimed at
discouraging cash payments
The idea is to incentivize
all kinds of digital payments , especially smaller transactions , in
line with the government’s plan of making India , a less cash economy
The source said the relief is being
mooted for “ smaller transactions “ as these
are large in numbers and are mostly preferred through the cash mode
Transactions of up to Rs 2,000 are very high in volume and if an
incentive can be given here, it will provide an impetus to digital payments while also
facilitating the entry of more people within the formal economy
THIRD SIDE :
It is indeed heartening to know that the
Government is “ considering “ , a suggestion that I made 2 years ago ( and sent to the Policy Makers as
email ), in my blog :
After 50 years of introduction of various PENSION SCHEMES ( public + private ) , we have managed to provide cover to ( approx.
) 122 Lakh subscribers of NPS / APY ( by March 2016 ) , of which , some 84 Lakh
are employed in Industries / Businesses
But some 50
crore of our Citizens ( employed + self-employed ) have NO PENSION COVER , what-so-ever !
That made me suggest { 31 Aug
2015 } ,
( People's Wealth Creation Scheme ) as follows :
* If GST is going to be ( say ) 20 % ,
Government will transfer from this ,
2 % ( ie 10 % of that 20 % ) , to the PPF account of the
Consumer /
Buyer , who pays for the Goods / Services
purchased , using a RuPay
Card or a
" Mobile Wallet " app
This will
motivate millions of self - employed to open PPF accounts !
* Since interest from a PPF account is tax-free
, every citizen would , now
want to make all payments thru RuPay card or a
Mobile Wallet App
* RuPay cards are already tied up with accounts opened under Jan Dhan
Yojana
* Mobile
Wallets Apps will also get tied-up with thousands of branches of
Payment Banks , which will open in next 18
months
Just imagine the number of new accounts that
will get opened in the
1,55,000 + post offices of India Post !
* In this way , Social
Security will become " Self
Financing " !
* Currently , in India , some 97 % of all payments are " Cash Payments ".
With
introduction of this proposal , these will drastically decline
* Any payment made , using RuPay card or a Mobile Wallet App , will make
available to the Income Tax Department , full
digitized record of each
such
transaction , including :
* Who made the payment
* To whom was
that payment made
* When was that payment made
* For what purchase
, was that payment made
* What was the amount paid
* One , very desirable consequence of
Jan Dhan Sarjan Yojana
will be that our " Domestic
Savings Rate " will climb back to 30 % !
In turn , this will help us wither global
economic crisis , much better !
Dear Shri
Arun Jaitleyji :
My suggestion provides an opportunity to rapidly
move towards a “ Less Cash
Economy “
And , please do not worry about the fact that those 50 crore Indians do NOT have a PPF
account ( to enable transfer of that 2 % incentive )
Our ICT ( HW / SW ) geeks are quite
capable of ensuring that Jan Dhan Sarjan Software will create such an account AUTOMATICALLY / INSTANTLY
, in the name of each citizen making a DIGITAL PAYMENT
And know what ?
With this in place , you would have created a PLATORM for future
introduction of UNIVERSAL BASIC
INCOME !
Please , do
not let this “ Once – in –
a – Life Time “ opportunity slip away !
29 Aug 2017
