Aadhaar-enabled Payment System comes as boon to overcome cash crunch

RAJAHMUNDRY: Even as the Centre and state governments are making hard efforts to promote cashless transactions in a big way, lack of adequate number of electronic Point of Sale machines is affecting the move severely as the bankers are seeking two to four months’ time to supply such machines. At this juncture, Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AEPS) comes as a boon to overcome the ongoing crisis and help cashless transactions to be done with ease even without a debit or RuPay card in the state.

According to this system, a seller needs to have a smart mobile phone, a software application installed in it, a biometric device and a micro USB cable to connect the phone with biometric device. The buyer must have his or her bank account seeded to Aadhaar number and should have sufficient funds to pay for purchase of goods he or she wanted to. When a buyer approaches a seller for purchase of some goods, the seller needs to give his Aadhaar number.

The seller feeds the given Aadhaar number on his smart mobile phone in the software application and that application automatically identifies the identity of the buyer and his bank account number. The seller has to give his or her thumb impression on biometric device. Then the seller feeds the amount of purchase made by the buyer and the software application deducts the said amount from the bank account of the buyer and credits it to the bank account of the seller and the whole exercise takes less than a minute.

As the customers are facing a lot of trouble due to cash crunch to make purchases and availing services, the Krishna district administration has launched AEPS on an experimental basis.

Taking a cue from the Krishna district administration, West Godavari authorities have also started to implement it at a few commercial establishments as a pilot project. National Informatics Centre West Godavari district information officer B.S.R. Sharma said, “We are implementing Aadhaar-enabled Payment System in about eight to 10 shops across  the district as a pilot project and we are getting good feedback from both the buyers and sellers as it is hassle-free and requires less investment to the seller to own up the software application and the biometric device, instead of waiting for a long time to get Point of Sale machines from the bankers.”

Traders welcome hack-safe Aadhaar enabled payment:

Traders welcome the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AEPS) as it is hassle free, secure and requires less investment when compared with buying a Point of Sale machine. Many traders have developed inhibitions on cashless financial transactions, saying that there is no guarantee for  cash in their bank accounts if it gets hacked.

The traders are also cynical against the Centre for allowing bankers to collect transaction fee for every online transaction carried out to the tune of 2 per cent from March next. They maintain that a product has to be sold at its maximum retail price to the customer and only that amount has to be deducted from the bank account of the customer during cashless transaction.

The banker deducts 2 per cent transaction charge from the seller. The traders say that this online transaction benefits neither the seller nor the buyer and the bankers get more money in the form of transaction charges day-by-day.
Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry state convener Ashok Kumar Jain said, “We welcome any move initiated by the government to help us overcome the prevailing cash crunch and the cashless transactions should be secure all the time.”