National workshop on ‘Electronic Government Payments & Receipts’ by MeitY

The workshop brings together stakeholders across States and Centre at a common level of awareness about adoptions of available digital solutions; A detailed framework and guidelines issued by MeitY for adoption of digital modes of payments and receipts.

A National Workshop on “Electronic Government Payments and Receipts (EPR)” was organized on 20^thDecember, 2016, at Auditorium, Scope Conventional Centre, Lodhi Road New Delhi by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The workshop was inaugurated by Ms. Aruna Sundararajan IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India (MeitY).

The Electronic Payments & Receipts (EPR) workshop aimed at bringing all the stakeholders in Government Payments and Receipts ecosystem on a common level of awareness about various solutions. MeitY introduced initiatives at national level being undertaken for immediate adoption of electronic modes payments and receipts.

“EPR workshop is an initiative to augment the DigiDhan Abhiyan initiated by Government of India. Such workshops will help us in understanding the overall ecosystem and collaborating and addressing the challenges related to the Government payments & receipts from perspective of last mile payers & payees.”, said Ms. Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) while delivering the key note address. A detailed Framework and Guideline has been issued by MeitY for assisting Government Departments to adopt electronics modes of payments and receipts.

“It is the Government’s declared mandate to go from high-cash system to less-cash and then towards cash-less system. There is a drive under Digital India to make interaction with Government paperless, faceless and cashless. All Government departments need to be familiar with the frameworks, rules and changing technologies with respect to EPR framework whether it is Government to Governments (G2G) or Government to consumer (G2C) transactions, we have to move into the digital paradigm. As far as G2C is concerned, by April 1, 2017 all entitlements shall be given through Aadhaar enabled Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) channels. India is embracing new technology like UPI and Adhaar and is going beyond conventional technologies, setting an example for the rest of the world on digital empowerment of its citizens”, Ms. Aruna Sundararajan added. She further emphasized on need to ensure secured and seamless transactions in all financial transactions and designate a Cyber Information Security Officer in all such Govt Departments that carry financial transactions with Government, Business and Citizens.

“The workshop was very interactive, with active participation from 26 States and several major departments of the Government.” said, Dr. Radha Chauhan, National E-Governance Division (NEGD). MeitY has taken steps in awareness creation and have already trained and enrolled 44 Lakh citizens and 130,000 merchants (Source: Real time tracking of digital enrolments through digitaljagriti.in – Information as on 22 Dec 2016 at 11.30 am) for digital payments. Dr. Radha Chauhan urged all the stakeholders to deliberate on the issues and users level experiences, and the potential to standardize/ synergies these systems for seamless electronic financial transactions in government.

Sofia Dahiya, Joint CGA said, “We plan to cover all implementing agencies that receive GoI funds to track & monitor fund flow. Non-Tax Receipts Portal (NTRP) launched by CGA is a complete solution for receiving funds by the Govt.  It is bank neutral and once universally adopted will make consumer payments easy”. Government of India has already notified that all Ministries / Department of Government of India are required to discharge all payments above Rs 5000 electronically.

“Innovative technology solutions require secure, safe and intuitive systems in place for electronic payments” Mr. Krishnan Dharmarajan, ED, CDFI said while setting the context of the Workshop

Sri Ganesh kumar, Chief General Manager of RBI shared some of the important guidelines issued by RBI to ensure safe and seamless electronic transactions and to ensure the interest of end users. Mr. Ganesh Kumar highlighted the need to factor direct and indirect costs involved in cash transactions, both on the part of receiver and payee while deliberating on the transaction charges for online payments. The workshop was attended by officials from Central and State Government Departments, Banks, NPCI, Payment Card network companies, Pre-paid instrument providers, Payment service providers, Aggregators, Technology service providers and Regulators

The workshop deliberated on challenges in government payments and receipts from the perspective of last mile Payers and Payees as Residents/ Institutions, Government Departments’ and PSP’s perspectives.

The workshop has been jointly organized by NeGD and Centre for Digital Financial Inclusion (CDFI) with NPCI as Knowledge partner.