Government has no such intentions to withdraw Bank Cheque Book Service

Refuting an earlier report that cheque book facility would be withdrawn to push digital transactions, the Ministry of Finance on Thursday clarified that there is no such proposal under consideration. To recap, just last week, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said, “In all probability, the Centre may withdraw the cheque book facility in the near future to encourage digital transactions.”

The ministry, in a couple of tweets, stated that the government has no such intentions to withdraw the service. The ministry further “emphasised that while the government is committed to transform India into a less-cash economy and promote digital and electronic transactions through multi-pronged initiatives, cheques are an integral part of the payments landscape, and form the backbone of trade and commerce.”

It is a well known fact that the digital transactions rose after the government’s note ban exercise and e-payment companies have since seen substantial jump in their businesses.

“In the last 12 months, we saw over three times growth. Before demonetisation, we were processing monthly transactions of Rs 3,000 crore, which now stands at Rs 6,800 crore across all our verticals,” Atom Technologies Managing Director and CEO Dewang Neralla said.

According to the Payments Council of India, the growth rate of the digital payments industry, which was earlier in the range of 20-50 per cent, has accelerated post demonetisation to 40-70 per cent. Most digital players in the industry have made multi-fold investments in the sector in the last one year in infra, brand, marketing, creating awareness.

The government has been pushing for a less-cash economy and promoting digital transactions, especially post-demonetisation of high value currency in November last year.