Tripura to adopt cashless payment system in public transactions from New Year

The government of Tripura has decided to adopt for cashless payment in all public transactions, starting from 1 January 2017.

The government has already initiated the process of opening bank accounts including issuing RuPay cards to people who do not have any bank accounts.

According to the Chief Secretary of the state, Yashpal Singh, 80% people in Tripura already have at least one bank account. So, the state government took the initiative of opening bank accounts for those who don’t have such as the tea garden and brick kiln workers.

By New Year, the government plans to convert the state into a cashless economy by ensuring that all its state departments deal mostly in digital payments.

Apart from this, the government is also building digital infrastructure in the Agartala government medical college & hospital, Tripura medical college and hospital and Indira Gandhi Memorial hospital. The move has been made to help families of patients, to enable them to make digital payments.

Goa to become India’s first cashless state

The government has also asked all government, semi-government, and private enterprises to install point-of-sale machines to discourage cash transactions and encourage digital payments. In fact, even hotels, handicraft outlets, tourist lodges and showrooms have been asked to convert to cashless business.

With this, Tripura becomes the second state to attempt to adopt Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cashless drive. Goa was the first state to announce that it will operate completely cashless, starting 31 December 2016.