New Delhi : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has taken up success of demonetisation as a personal challenge, busy with video-conferencing since Wednesday to involve both the ruling BJP and banks in steps to convince the people about the measure.
He went to the BJP headquarters to engage with all state units of the party on a video-conference chat on Wednesday and followed it up with a video-conferencing with banks on Thursday for giving a major push to cash-less economy.
Jaitley told the state party functionaries to mount a campaign to educate the people about benefits of demonetisation as a counter to the joint opposition trying to spread fear in the minds of the people temporarily affected.
He also gave a briefing to half a dozen senior ministers who will be holding small group meetings with the party MPs in the next few days to train them on how to puncture the opposition’s onslaught on demonetisation in both within Parliament and in their constituencies.
In his video-conferencing with the banks, Jaitley asked them to restart the normal lending and other banking activities as the rush for converting the now-defunct notes at their branches was now reducing. He laid special stress on Mudra loans, noting that they will help the enterprises to meet restocking requirements by way of working capital.
He sought the bankers’ help in the government’s stress on promoting digital currency so that the physical currency shrinks and the economy expands with transparency in the transactions that were shrouded for decades with the black money. It alone can meet the goal of financial inclusion that the government is committed to, he said.
Officials said Jaitley laid stress on all future transactions in mission mode through alternate banking channels such as NEFT, mobile wallets, pre-paid cards, QR codes, pay-roll cards, debit and credit cards and Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
They said Jaitley has roped in the Indian Bankers Association (IBA) to launch an advertising campaign, including demonstration videos on how to use cards and other modes for cash-less transactions.
