In the government's attempt to revoloutionarize digital India mission, the Finance ministry has taken a decision to provide with 0.75 % discount on all digital payments at fuel stations and a 10% discount on toll plazas.
This means that on an average, somebody who owns a hatchback car with a 35 litre fuel tank, that person can easily save upto Rs 15 to 30 on a petrol refill of Rs. 2000. And also according to the government about 4.5 crore people visit Diesel / Petrol stations every day to get fuel. And the good part is, all the transactions upto Rs 2000 will be totally exempt from service tax. Also the government said that everyday a fuel worth Rs 1800 crore is sold daily, out of which about 20% is paid through digital means. Also in the month of november these transactions have risen upto 40%. The government is hopeful that these transactions are expected to rise by 30% more after the effect of discount schemes. By this way the government hopes that transactions upto Rs 2 lakh crores can be cut down without the need of cash via digital method.
Even all digital payments made on toll booths on all highways through RFID cards/Fast tags will give the user a benefit of a 10% discount which is good enough for an average traveller. After the demonetization the government had already announced an exemption on tol booth payments from 9th November to December 2. The exemption proved to be a loss of Rs 1200 crores for NHAI ( National Highway Authority Of India).
In order to deal with the shortage of cash even the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is trying to implement the idea of allowing cashless payment option called FASTag. The decision has been taken under a committe headed by Nanadan Nikelani. The decisions includes the authorities using digital payment machine sused on tolls after December 2, 2016.
After this decision now, anybody who owns a car or a bike and has problem with daily payments due to shortage of cash, have a reason to be happy again. Because although the petrol pump station had an instruction to accept all currency notes, there was still shortage of change and some also refused to take old currency. Atleast we can say that the digital mission can prove to be a relief by providing an extra alternative.