.After Saarc, India boycotts Pak again
Along With Iran & Bangladesh, Pulls Out Of Regional Conference In Islamabad
India, along with Bangladesh and Iran, has pulled out of a key regional conference on sustainable development which is being held in Pakistan, according to a media report.
2.Naidu Panel Seeks Cut in Card Use Fee
Suggests MDR at 30 p for transactions up to Rs 100 and a maximum of Rs 10 for those above Rs 2k
The high-profile committee of chief ministers led by Chandrababu Naidu tasked with finding ways of boosting digital payments has urged the Reserve Bank of India to slash card transaction charges to help wean Indians away from cash. The Niti Aayog has forwarded the proposal, mooted by committee member Nandan Nilekani, to the central bank.
“The chief ministers' committee is in agreement that on account of the massive push towards a digital eco nomy , financial transactions are moving from an era of low volume, high value to an era of high volume, low value,“ Niti Aayog CEO Ami tabh Kant wrote in a tabh Kant wrote in a note to RBI Governor Urjit Patel.
The proposal is in line with the central government's push to boost digital transactions as part of efforts to shift to a cashless economy in the wake of demonetisation. The panel has suggested that the merchant deposit rate (MDR) be cut to 30 paise for transactions up to `100 and a maximum of `10 for transactions above `2,000 to encourage payments using debit and credit cards. MDR is the commission paid by merchants to the banks that run the point-of-sale (PoS) machine networks.
Since 2012, RBI has capped MDR for debit card transactions up to `2,000 at 0.75% and at 1% for all transactions above `2,000. MDR on credit cards is not capped and can go up to 2.5%.
“On account of this transition, transaction fee or MDR has to be substantially lower,“ the note said. “Volume growth will more than make up for lower transaction fees, since the marginal cost of transaction is very low.“ The rise in volume could lead to a fourfold increase in MDR revenue, it's estimated. The committee constituted by the Centre had asked Nilekani to prepare a paper on realigning transaction fees.
As per the structure proposed by Nilekani, total MDR on transactions through cards and point-of-sale (PoS) machines should be 0.5% for purchases below `100 to cover utility costs and a maximum of `10 for higher transactions to facilitate larger ticket transactions. It has proposed MDR of 0.3% or `6 for transactions through the unified payment interface (UPI) -an online payments platform -and 0.5-1% of transactions at microATMs. Besides, it has recommended RBI consider imposing a 2% cap on credit card MDR to discourage the practice of composite MDR, which is often more than 1%. The committee has asked RBI to implement the changes under Section 18 of the Payments & Settlements System Act, 2007, in a manner that will encourage the shift to digital while safeguarding the interests of banks.
A sizeable portion of the MDR goes toward paying interchange fees by the card-issuing bank and a part of it to payment service providers such as Visa, MasterCard or National Payments Corp of India (NPCI) for RuPay cards.
The government has announced several measures, both for customers and merchants, to encourage digital payments in the country ever since it sucked out a large portion of cash circulating in the economy by cancelling the legal tender status of `500 and `1,000 notes.
Steps have been taken to make petrol, railway tickets and insurance policies of state-owned companies cheaper if bought with debitcredit cards or other digital modes. Besides, a lucky draw cashback reward scheme for consumers and merchants will run from Christmas to mid-April for transactions of `50 to `30,000 through digital means.
The three-day session of the Governing Council of the Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT) started in Islamabad on Monday . The objective of the conference is to promote innovation for sustainable development and discus strategy of the APCTT.
The Express Tribune reported that officials of the ministry of science and technology initially confirmed New Delhi's participation in the conference but later announced India's decision to pull out. “Just hours before the meeting was due to start, the Indian delegation cancelled their trip saying that their head delegate had contracted food poisoning,“ the official said.
India had earlier in November boycotted the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit that was to be held in Islamabad. It is believed that New Delhi's decision is part of its efforts to isolate Pakistan internationally by staying away from such multilateral engagements hosted by Islamabad, media reports said.
However, government officials in New Delhi said not much should be read into india's absence and that the Indian delegation couldn't attend probably because of scheduling issues. The ministry of science and technology is hosting the meeting of the 12th Governing Council of APCTT.
According to sources, all of the 14 member countries of APCTT were invited, but India, Bangladesh and Iran decided not to attend the meeting.The governing council, which meets once a year, advises on the future and reviews the working of the centre located in India under the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
The countries attending the meeting are China, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Samoa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The meet will approve projects to be undertaken in 2017. Out of the total five projects, India has submitted one titled `Feed the Future India'.The project is aimed at enhancing food security in selected least-developed countries through the establishment of an agricultural innovation accelerator platform in India with USAID funding of $1.5 million.
The APCTT is a specialised regional Institute of the United Nations' Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UN-ESCAP), based in New Delhi and a team from India have come to Islamabad to look after all the management related issues for the three-day conference.
Suggests MDR at 30 p for transactions up to Rs 100 and a maximum of Rs 10 for those above Rs 2k
The high-profile committee of chief ministers led by Chandrababu Naidu tasked with finding ways of boosting digital payments has urged the Reserve Bank of India to slash card transaction charges to help wean Indians away from cash. The Niti Aayog has forwarded the proposal, mooted by committee member Nandan Nilekani, to the central bank.
“The chief ministers' committee is in agreement that on account of the massive push towards a digital eco nomy , financial transactions are moving from an era of low volume, high value to an era of high volume, low value,“ Niti Aayog CEO Ami tabh Kant wrote in a tabh Kant wrote in a note to RBI Governor Urjit Patel.
The proposal is in line with the central government's push to boost digital transactions as part of efforts to shift to a cashless economy in the wake of demonetisation. The panel has suggested that the merchant deposit rate (MDR) be cut to 30 paise for transactions up to `100 and a maximum of `10 for transactions above `2,000 to encourage payments using debit and credit cards. MDR is the commission paid by merchants to the banks that run the point-of-sale (PoS) machine networks.
Since 2012, RBI has capped MDR for debit card transactions up to `2,000 at 0.75% and at 1% for all transactions above `2,000. MDR on credit cards is not capped and can go up to 2.5%.
“On account of this transition, transaction fee or MDR has to be substantially lower,“ the note said. “Volume growth will more than make up for lower transaction fees, since the marginal cost of transaction is very low.“ The rise in volume could lead to a fourfold increase in MDR revenue, it's estimated. The committee constituted by the Centre had asked Nilekani to prepare a paper on realigning transaction fees.
As per the structure proposed by Nilekani, total MDR on transactions through cards and point-of-sale (PoS) machines should be 0.5% for purchases below `100 to cover utility costs and a maximum of `10 for higher transactions to facilitate larger ticket transactions. It has proposed MDR of 0.3% or `6 for transactions through the unified payment interface (UPI) -an online payments platform -and 0.5-1% of transactions at microATMs. Besides, it has recommended RBI consider imposing a 2% cap on credit card MDR to discourage the practice of composite MDR, which is often more than 1%. The committee has asked RBI to implement the changes under Section 18 of the Payments & Settlements System Act, 2007, in a manner that will encourage the shift to digital while safeguarding the interests of banks.
A sizeable portion of the MDR goes toward paying interchange fees by the card-issuing bank and a part of it to payment service providers such as Visa, MasterCard or National Payments Corp of India (NPCI) for RuPay cards.
The government has announced several measures, both for customers and merchants, to encourage digital payments in the country ever since it sucked out a large portion of cash circulating in the economy by cancelling the legal tender status of `500 and `1,000 notes.
Steps have been taken to make petrol, railway tickets and insurance policies of state-owned companies cheaper if bought with debitcredit cards or other digital modes. Besides, a lucky draw cashback reward scheme for consumers and merchants will run from Christmas to mid-April for transactions of `50 to `30,000 through digital means.
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