Chief Minister Sri K.Chandrashekhar Rao meeting with ICICI Bank Officials

Honorable Chief Minister Sri K Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday felt that people should be educated on Electronic Financial Literacy as technology is playing a major role in day-to-day life. The time has come for the people to have awareness on the electronic transactions and there is a need to change the present thinking of people. The Digital transfer of money, post demonetization, became a necessity for the financial transactions, the CM said.

The Honorable CM was speaking at a meeting he had in Pragathi Bhavan with senior officials from the ICIC Bank, who came forward to offer the bank’s services to the people on the digital platform.  The ICICI Bank officials have explained to the Honourable CM about the ongoing digital transactions trend in the country. They have expressed their desire extend their Bank services to the people in the State.

The Chief Minister said that the people are always ready to accept any change provided if they are explained the benefits of the change. “The people should be explained on the benefits of the new method,” he said and added that the immediate necessity was conducting financial transactions through digital platforms.

In this context, the CM said that very soon the State would implement the digital transactions at all levels and would become the first State to have done cashless transactions. He is happy to note that the Telangana State for the past five days has been registering the highest number of financial transactions digitally on a daily basis and stood first in the country.

“It is not that people have no knowledge about the digital transactions. Since they are used to the cash transactions, they are yet to get familiarize with using ATMs and Swipe Machines. In the rural areas, do people have the habit of paying through Cheque while purchasing daily commodities like milk, vegetables, and mutton etc.,” the CM asked?  He said it would not be possible for the people to get into banking transactions overnight. It would take some more time for them to get a feel of it. It is good that the banks have come forward to offer their services, he said.

The Chief Minister has asked IT Minister Sri K T Rama Rao to ensure that people are educated and created awareness on digital transactions through advertisement jingles. “Tell people that it is not safe to have hard currency in their pockets and in their houses. The people should understand that their money is safe through the digital transactions. To achieve this objective, what the government should do, what role the government officials to play and what kind of coordination is needed between the government and the bankers should be discussed with meetings between the organisations concerned,” the CM observed.

The CM also underlined the need to make the state government administration a partner in the entire process and all the employees working in the rural areas from village secretaries’ level to undergo training in this regard. The ICICI bank representatives have given several suggestions to the Honourble Chief Minister.

Responding to this the CM said that this process should not be done in a hurry. “In the first phase, all the financial transactions done by the government should be digitalized. The money received by the government through registrations department, civil supplies department and other sectors and the payments being made to contractors, and salaries to the employees and other expenditure should be made through e-transfer. All the financial transactions should be done through Uniform Payment Interface system. Similarly, if farmers deposit their money after selling their produce in banks, they would slowly learn the digital transactions.

The Chief Minister pointed out that even in a technologically advanced country like the US, there is still some percentage of cash transactions takes place. In our country where cash transactions are part of our life and culture, there would be a small percentage of people who would still continue cash transactions. “It is very much in our psyche to actually touch and feel the currency,” the CM explained.

CM also reiterated that once a cashless society is established there will not be any other taxes except the GST and Banking Transaction Tax. He wanted the bank management and employees to help the people to understand the new methods and extend their services. He wanted IT Minister Sri KT Rama Rao to have regular meetings with the bankers. He also agreed to formally launch State Government’s TS e-Wallet during the Collectors’ conference to be held here on December 14.

Senior officials from ICICI Bank, Zonal Head Sri Siddhartha Mishra, Regional Head Sri Vineet Balhotra, Retail Business Head Sri Avijit Saha, DGM Geography Head Sri Jita Mishra, Ministers Sri KT Rama Rao, Sri G Jagadeeshwar Reddy, Sri P Srinivas Reddy, MP Sri Vinod Kumar, MLCs Sri Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, Sri Srinivas Reddy, Sri Subhash Reddy, Chairman TSMDC, B. Narender Reddy, Chairman, Forest Development Corporation,  CMO officials Sri Bhoopal Reddy, Ms Smita Sabharwal participated in the meeting.

-Press note