Govt hikes digital payments target; DPIIT looks into easing FDI rules

The government has increased the target for e-transactions in the financial year ending March 2020 to 45 billion. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is looking into relaxing India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) norms. 

Govt hikes digital payments target for FY20 

The government has increased the target for e-transactions in the financial year ending March 2020 to 45 billion (by volume) from 40 billion, the Economic Times reports.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has also reissued individual targets for banks and payments firms for the same period, the report said.

Digital payments platform Paytm and private sector lender HDFC Bank’s targets were increased the most.

The government has also notified that banks or other payments system providers will not charge merchant discount rate (MDR) on consumers or merchants when the entity receiving payments has a turnover of over Rs 50 crore. This has been done to boost digital payments across India, starting from next month.

DPIIT kickstarts exercise to ease FDI norms

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is looking into relaxing India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) norms, the Economic Times reports.

The DPIIT has asked ministries and other departments to submit specific proposals for FDI relaxation, the report said.

The move comes after the government opened FDI in contract manufacturing and eased norms for overseas investors in single-brand retail and coal mining.

Presently, FDI is prohibited in nine sectors which include lottery business; gambling and betting including casinos; chit funds; Nidhi companies; trading in transferable development rights; real estate business or construction of farmhouses; manufacturing of cigars, cheroots, cigarillos and cigarettes, of tobacco or of tobacco substitutes; atomic energy, and certain railway operations.