NEW DELHI: P Chidambaram had his boxy leather briefcase. Nirmala Sitharaman had her crimson bahi-khata. Truly, the ceremony that goes into presenting the Union Budget is sometimes as attention-worthy as the document itself. This time, the finance minister departed from her own established tradition and opted for a paperless budget.
Giving her trademark bahi-khata a pass for a made in India tablet to present the budget, FM Nirmala Sitharaman was definitely not just making a mock statement on the digital-centric realities of today. In fact, she had in store great plans for further pushing the digital sector in the coming financial year.
This marked the first time since independence that the budget was not printed on paper. Yes, even the members of Parliament did not receive a physical copy of the budget papers, instead they will be given digital versions of the budget and economic survey. The ministry of finance has also unveiled a mobile app where all the budget documents will be available.
Building on the strong focus that this government has on digitising governance and businesses, Sitharaman has announced that the upcoming census will be done digitally. She also allocated Rs 3,726 crore for this first-ever digital census of India.
Additionally, she has proposed a Rs 1,500 crore scheme to promote digital payments.
"To give a further boost to digital transactions, I earmark Rs 1,500 crore for a proposed scheme that will provide financial incentive to promote the digital mode of payment," Sitharaman said while presenting the Budget.
A Redseer consulting report pegged the country’s digital payment market at around Rs 2,162 trillion in 2019-20. It’s projected to grow three-fold to Rs 7,092 trillion by 2025 on account of government policies around financial inclusion and growing digitisation of merchants, according to the report released in August 2020.
"Mobile payments will drive around 3.5 per cent of total digital payments of Rs 7,092 trillion by the financial year 2025, up from the current one per cent. The total mobile payment users who currently stand at about 162 million would reach around 800 million during this period," the report had said.
