Cashless economy still distant dream

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, April 26

Notwithstanding tall claims of the Centre of encouraging e-transactions, the state is far behind in going cashless as poor Internet services and lack of knowledge force people to pay in cash only.

The cashless economy is still a distant dream in the state, as most of the people prefer to pay in cash only due to their poor experiences of card payments.

Most of the shops and supermarkets are facing more than 5 per cent of failed transactions on daily basis due to poor Internet facility and servers of banks remaining down in the state. The amount gets deducted from the customer’s account but does not get credited to the shopkeeper’s account. It takes up to three working days to rectify the error.

“Only 10-15 per cent people prefer card payments and about 5 per cent of the total card payments get failed due to network error or servers of banks being down. Card payments saw an increase after demonetisation but due to continuous failing of such payments people now prefer to pay in cash only,” said a manager of a reputed supermarket in Jammu.

“Sometimes we have to face anger of some customers when amount from their account gets deducted and we do not get the payment. To encourage cashless transactions, banks have to improve their servers,” he said.

The other reasons for cashless transactions are many of the shops, showrooms, petrol pumps and supermarkets do not have POS machines and many of them who have are charging extra for card swipe.

“I had to buy a motorbike for which I visited about three-four showrooms of different companies in Jammu. All of them refused to accept card payment, except Jainco Automobile. But the dealer asked me to pay 1 per cent extra for it,” said Subash Chander, a two-wheeler customer in Jammu.

“The tall claims of the Prime Minister and advertisements on TV do not apply here in Jammu, as many of the big shops and petrol pumps are not accepting card payments saying that they do not have the facility,” he said.

The Legal Metrology Department of the state says it cannot take any action against any shopkeeper unless a written complaint is made to the district Consumer Forum.

“As per the rules, a dealer cannot charge extra for card payments. If someone is doing so, the customer should approach the district Consumer Forum,” said VK Sambyal, Joint Controller, Legal Metrology Department, Jammu. “We cannot raid the shop, unless we have some written complaint against the dealer,” he said.