Ratan P Watal committee
The Union Finance Ministry has constituted a high-level committee to suggest steps to promote card payments through incentives like tax rebates and cash back schemes, with an aim to discourage cash transactions. The committee will be headed by Principle Adviser for social sector in NITI Aayog and former Finance Secretary Ratan P Watal. The committee will review the payments system in India and will also study feasibility of creating a payments history of all card/digital payments and ensure that merchants/consumers can leverage the data to access instant, low cost micro-credit through digital means and create necessary linkage between the payment history and credit information. The committee will also study and recommend need for changes, if any, in the regulatory mechanism under various laws, relevant for the purpose of promotion of payments by digital modes.