Watal Committee on Digital Payments submits final report

Q.  Who headed the Committee on Digital Payments?
- Published on 12 Dec 16

a. Ratan P Watal
b. Ratan P Wasan
c. Ratan P Wagle
d. None of the above

ANSWER: Ratan P Watal
 
Committee on Digital Payments headed by former Finance Secretary Ratan P. Watal submitted its final report suggesting measures to boost cashless transactions in the medium term to FM Arun Jaitley.

Committee was constituted by the Ministry of Finance under Ratan Watal.

Watal is also the Principal Advisor of the NITI Aayog.

Committee has recommended a medium term strategy for accelerating growth of digital payments in India with a regulatory regime that is conducive to bridging the digital divide by promoting competition, open access and interoperability in payments.

Report also recommends the inclusion of financially and socially excluded groups and assimilation of emerging technologies in the market, while safeguarding security of digital transactions and offering a level playing field to stakeholders and new players who enter the transaction space.

The committee has also suggested inter-operability of the payments system between banks and non banks, upgradation of the digital payment infrastructure and the framework to reward innovations and make leading efforts in enabling digital payments.

GoI constituted the Committee on Aug 23 to review the payment systems in the country and recommend appropriate measures for digital payments.

Before presenting its report, the committee engaged extensively with all stakeholders including RBI, state governments, CAG of India, technology companies, payment companies and the academia.

The committee submitted its interim report on Nov 21.

It has provided a framework for smooth and speedy transition towards a digital payment economy.

Digital Payments
  • Transactions on e-wallets have increased from 17 lakhs/day to 63 lakhs/day. Value of transactions has increased from INR 52 crore to 191 crore.
  • Volume of transactions using Rupay has risen from 3.85 lakh/day to 16 lakh/day
  • The value has risen from INR 39.17 crores to INR 236 crores.
  • UPI transactions volume has risen from 3721/day to 48,000/day. Value of transactions rose INR 1.93 crore to INR 15 crore.

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