Rs 1500 cr incentive for promotion of UPI payments
NEW DELHI, Mar 19:
The Government on Wednesday revised two schemes – National Program for Dairy Development and Rashtriya Gokul Mission, raising the outlay by Rs 2,000 crore to Rs 6,190 crore to boost milk production, procurement level, processing capacity, lab testing facilities and other related infrastructure.
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Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the Revised National Program for Dairy Development (NPDD) and the Revised Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM), Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters.
“The Revised NPDD, a Central Sector Scheme, has been enhanced with an additional Rs 1,000 crore, bringing the total budget to Rs 2,790 crore for the period of the 15th Finance Commission cycle (2021-22 to 2025-26),” an official statement said.
This initiative focuses on modernising and expanding dairy infrastructure, ensuring the sector’s sustained growth and productivity, Vaishnaw said.
The revised NPDD will give an impetus to the dairy sector by creating infrastructure for milk procurement, processing capacity, and ensuring better quality control. It is intended to help farmers gain better access to markets, ensure better pricing through value addition, and improve the efficiency of the supply chain.
In a post on social media platform ‘X’, Prime Minister Modi said the approval for the revised National Programme for Dairy Development will contribute to the sector’s transformation, ensuring better pricing for farmers, job creation and more.
The Cabinet also approved the Revised RGM to boost growth in the livestock sector.
“Implementation of revised RGM, as central sector component of Development Programmes scheme is being done with an additional outlay of Rs 1,000 crore, that is total outlay of Rs 3,400 crore during 15th Finance Commission cycle from 2021-22 to 2025-26,” the statement said.
Under the RGM, two new activities have been added, a) one-time assistance of 35 per cent of the capital cost for establishment of Heifer Rearing Centres to Implementing Agencies for creation of 30 housing facilities having a total of 15,000 heifers; (b) encourage farmers to purchase high genetic merit (HGM) IVF heifers to provide 3 per cent interest subvention on loan taken by the farmer from milk unions/financial institutions/ banks.
This will help in systemic induction of high-yielding breeds.
In another post, the Prime Minister said the decision relating to the Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) will boost milk production, improve indigenous breeds and empower several dairy farmers.
“It is a major effort towards self-reliance in the livestock sector,” he said.
There will be a continuation of ongoing activities of the Rashtriya Gokul Mission – strengthening of semen stations, artificial insemination network, implementation of bull production programme, accelerated breed improvement programme using sex-sorted semen, skill development, farmer awareness, support for innovative activities including establishment of Centre of Excellence and strengthening of Central Cattle Breeding Farms.
“With the implementation of the Rashtriya Gokul Mission and other efforts of the Government, milk production has increased by 63.55 per cent in the last ten years, along with the availability of milk per person, which was 307 grams per day in 2013-14, has increased to 471 grams per day in 2023-24. Productivity has also increased by 26.34 per cent in the last 10 years,” the statement said.
The NPDD scheme consists of two key components — the first one is dedicated to improving essential dairy infrastructure, such as milk chilling plants, advanced milk testing laboratories, and certification systems.
It also supports the formation of new village dairy cooperative societies and strengthens milk procurement and processing in the North Eastern Region, hilly regions, and Union Territories (UTs), especially in remote and backward areas, as well as the formation of 2 Milk Producer Companies (MPCs) with dedicated grant support.
The second component, known as “Dairying through Cooperatives (DTC)”, will continue to foster dairy development through cooperation with the Japanese Government and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as per agreements signed.
This component focuses on the sustainable development of dairy cooperatives, improving production, processing, and marketing infrastructure in the nine states (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal).
“The implementation of NPDD has made a huge socio-economic impact already benefiting over 18.74 lakh farmers and has created over 30,000 direct and indirect jobs and increased milk procurement capacity by an additional 100.95 lakh litres per day,” the statement said.
The NPDD has also supported promoting cutting-edge technology for better milk testing and quality control.
Over 51,777 village-level milk testing laboratories have been strengthened, while 5,123 bulk milk coolers with a combined capacity of 123.33 lakh litres have been installed. In addition, 169 labs have been upgraded with Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) milk analysers, and 232 dairy plants now have advanced systems for detecting adulteration.
The Revised NPDD is expected to establish 10,000 new Dairy Cooperative Societies, processing in the North Eastern Region, as well as the formation of 2 Milk Producer Companies (MPCs) with dedicated grant support.
Meanwhile, the Government approved a Rs 1,500 crore incentive for the promotion of small-value BHIM-UPI (P2M) transactions up to Rs 2,000, a move aimed at benefiting common people and small merchants.
The ‘Incentive Scheme for promotion of low-value BHIM-UPI transactions Person to Merchant (P2M)’ for the financial year 2024-25 was approved by the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters here.
In a post on social media platform X, the Prime Minister said, “The incentive scheme on promoting low-value UPI transactions, which has been approved by the Cabinet today will encourage digital payments and further ‘Ease of Living”.
The scheme will cover 55 per cent of the total merchant transactions, an official release said.
An incentive at the rate of 0.15 per cent per transaction value will be provided for transactions up to Rs 2,000 pertaining to the category of small merchants. For all the quarters of the scheme, 80 per cent of the admitted claim amount by the acquiring banks will be disbursed without any conditions.
The reimbursement of the remaining 20 per cent of the admitted claim amount for each quarter will be contingent upon the fulfilment of certain conditions.
The incentive will enable small merchants to avail of UPI services at no additional cost.
“As small merchants are price-sensitive, incentives would encourage them to accept UPI payment,” the release said.
The promotion of digital payments is an integral part of the government’s strategy for financial inclusion and provides wide-ranging payment options to the common man.
Vaishnaw also informed that UPI services are also available in Singapore, France, UAE, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal and Mauritius.
UPI – Unified Payments Interface – is an instant real-time payment system developed by NPCI to facilitate inter-bank transactions through mobile phones.
During the last financial year, incentive payouts by the government for BHIM-UPI were Rs 3,268 crore.
The incentive is paid by the government to the acquiring bank (Merchant’s bank) and thereafter shared among other stakeholders: Issuer Bank (Customer’s Bank), Payment Service Provider Bank (facilitates onboarding of customers on UPI app / API integrations) and App Providers (TPAPs).
As per the RBI, MDR up to 0.90 per cent of transaction value is applicable across all card networks (for Debit cards).
According to NPCI, MDR up to 0.30 per cent of transaction value is applicable for UPI P2M transactions. Since January 2020, to promote digital transactions, MDR was made zero for RuPay Debit Cards and BHIM-UPI transactions through amendments in section 10A in the Payments and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 and section 269SU of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
The Union Cabinet also approved the construction of a 6-lane access-controlled greenfield high-speed National Highway to connect JNPA Port (Pagote) with Chowk (29.219 km) in Maharashtra at an investment of Rs 4,500 crore.
According to an official statement, the project will be developed on build, operate and transfer (BOT) mode at a total cost of Rs 4,500.62 crore.
“The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, has approved the construction of 6-lane access controlled Greenfield High-Speed National Highway starting from JNPA Port (Pagote) to Chowk (29.219 km) in Maharashtra,” it said.
The development of road connecting infrastructure to major and minor ports in India is one of the main focus areas of integrated infrastructure planning under PM Gatishakti National Master Plan principles, it added.
“With the increasing container volume at JNPA port and the development of the Navi Mumbai International Airport, a need was identified for augmenting National Highway connectivity in the region,” the statement said.
The Cabinet also approved setting up of a urea plant in Assam with an estimated cost of Rs 10,601.4 crore as part of its effort to reduce import of this key crop nutrient and make India self-sufficient.
The Union Cabinet, has approved the proposal for setting up of a new brownfield Ammonia-Urea Complex of 12.7 lakh tonnes annual capacity of urea production within the existing premises of Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Ltd (BVFCL), Namrup Assam.
The plant will be established with an estimated total project cost of Rs 10,601.40 crore with debt-equity ratio of 70:30 through a Joint Venture (JV).
The tentative overall time schedule for commissioning of Namrup-IV Project is 48 months, an official statement said. (PTI)
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