Regarding the Nilekani Recommendations on Digital Payments, consider the following statements:
1. No transaction charge on payments made to both government and private entities.
2. Removal of import duty on point of sale machine.
3. A new digital financial inclusion index for monitoring reach of digital payments. 

Which of the statements given above are correct? 

RBI appointed committee on digital payments, headed by Nandan Nilekani, has made recommendations for strengthening digital payments ecosystem in India.

Recommendations:

• Removal of transaction charges: on digital payments made to government, there should be no convenience fee on consumers for digital payments made to state-run entities and central departments. Hence, statement 1 is NOT correct.
• Merchant Discount Rates (MDR) pricing structure: 15 basis points (100 bps = 1% point) cut on the interchange rate on card payments which is borne by the merchants.
• Removal of existing 18% import duty on POS (point of sale) machines for a period of three years. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• Reduce the goods and services tax (GST) on digital transactions so that the acceptance of digital payments can be improved among the customers.
• Mechanism to monitor the digital payment systems:
• Digital financial inclusion index so that progress in an area can be measured along a common scale, indicating the evolution of the users and steps taken for correcting the imbalance. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
• Aggregated information based on blocks and PIN codes, must be available to all players on a monthly basis.
• Reduce the overall cost to the consumers such as KYC (Know your customer) process at multiple stages of the transaction and service charges for digital payments.
• Setting up an Acceptance development fund: which will be used for developing new merchants in poorly served areas. 

By: Rameez Reza