Union Budget 2021: FM proposes ₹1,500 crore-scheme to promote digital payments

FM proposes ₹1,500 crore-scheme to promote digital payments

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman shows the Made-in-India tab through which budget will be presented as she leaves from the Ministry of Finance to present the Union Budget 2021-22 in the Parliament, in New Delhi on Monday.

The government on Monday proposed ₹1,500 crore-scheme to promote digital payments in the country.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said there has been a manifold increase in digital payments in the recent past.

"To give a further boost to digital transactions, I earmark ₹1,500 crore for a proposed scheme that will provide financial incentive to promote digital mode of payment," the minister said while presenting the Budget for 2021-22.

Sitharaman said, in her Budget speech of 2019, a National Research Foundation (NRF) was announced.

"...We have now worked out the modalities and the NRF outlay will be ₹50,000 crore over five years. It will ensure the overall research ecosystem in the country is strengthened with focus on identified national priority thrust areas," she said.

The Finance Minister also stated that a new initiative National Language Translation Mission will be undertaken. 

The government also wants to fund its large scale National Infrastructure Pipeline, Sitharaman said, adding that it would set aside ₹20,000 crore in order to begin funding for the Development Finance Institution (DFI) which is expected to cost over ₹111 lakh crore.

According to the finance minister, the ₹20,000 crore earmarked in the budget would allow the DFI to gain capital, while empowering it with a pending portfolio ₹5 lakh crore with the potential for expansion over the next three years. 

The plan to set up the DFI to aid the funding for the National Infrastructure Pipeline, was announced by the Finance Minister in the Budget address of 2019-20. The NIP has around 7,000 projects across the country, at a massive expected cost of nearly ₹111 lakh crore between 2020 and 2025. 

 

- With inputs from HT Correspondent