New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday pitched for greater use of "plastic money" and cheques saying that it would discourage use of unaccounted wealth and help in tackling the menace of black money.
"As the economy grows, there is a roadmap, and the roadmap is that more and more people start discarding the use of currency and switch over to either cheques or plastic currency," he said.
Speaking at the Foundation Day celebrations of Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd (SPMCIL) here, Jaitley said there is now a need to launch a campaign to create an awareness among people for using more and more RuPay cards which can be a game changer as far as India is concerned.
"More and more people should be incentivised to use plastic money such as credit cards, Rupay cards and cheques or any other negotiable instrument. They should be discouraged to use hard currency or unaccounted money," he added.
The Finance Minister said that most developing countries such as the UK and the US have highest denomination of currency in form of 50 pound and 100 dollar currency notes respectively.
He said the government is taking steps to reduce the incidence of high value cash transaction.
"Some steps have also been announced which make use of cash a little difficult," he said, adding that the move would check use of unaccounted money.
In Budget 2015-16, Jaitley had announced steps to deal with the menace of black money by dis-incentivising cash dealings in real estate and other such transactions.
The government has also taken steps to incentivise the use of credit and debit cards and putting a cap on cash transactions. Quoting PAN has been made mandatory for all sale and purchase of over Rs 1 lakh.
He also proposed to amend the Income-Tax Act to prohibit "acceptance or payment" of an advance of Rs 20,000 or more in cash for purchase of immovable property.
SPMCIL produces bank notes, coins, medals and medallions, weights & measures as well as various security products like passports, travel documents, non-judicial stamp papers, postal stationery.
