Encourage POS machines for a cashless economy: Bankers

Visakhapatnam: With the central government expressing its intention to move towards a cashless economy in order to curb black money, traders and bankers from the Port City pointed out that the government needs to encourage

POS

(

point of sale

) machines for the project to be successful.

According to city bankers, the banks supply POS machines for free to traders but charge a certain percentage based on the overall transactions carried out through these machines by using credit or debit cards. Bankers observed that if POS transactions have to increase, the government should offer subsidies for the machines or based on the transaction for the benefit of traders and customers.

“The banks supply the POS machines free of cost to the traders. But, there is a nominal transaction charge involved that the banks charge for offering the service as it is instantly transferring money into the account of the trader. However, the POS machines work well for establishments involved in high-value transactions whereas it is yet to become attractive for small time traders,” observed the manager of a nationalised bank in the city. He said, “Instead of spending crores of rupees on printing new notes, if the same funds are used to promote POS machines, the government will see that a higher number of transactions can be witnessed through banks.”

At the same time, another bank manager said, “The amount of bank transactions can almost double if all traders start utilising the POS machines. There will be no menace of black money or counterfeit money as all are being routed through banks.”

However, a kirana store vendor Satish M from Seethammadhara said, “We had tried introducing POS machines some time ago, but then we got charged around Rs 700-800 for about Rs 50,000 transaction. That is too high cost for us because otherwise we can directly take the cash and hand over to the dealers supplying us goods. If the charges are reduced, then every trader will keep it and there will not be any cash problem. Again, if we are slapped service charge for the transaction cost, then customers will not come to our shop.”

Check out the Valentine Day 2025 , along with the Valentine’s Day Wishes and Messages.