VRISHANK MAHATME
vrishank@herald-goa.com
As a part of the Smart City initiative residents of Panjim will soon get the Goa Universal Smart Card System or GUSC which will help them make purchases without worrying about the bank charges.
Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL), CEO and MD Swayandipta Pal Chaudhuri said this smart card backed by the Rupay platform would be rolled out next month by which the citizens, can use to buy tickets for bus, ferry along with all payments of government departments like PWD, Electricity or municipality along with other purchases.
The uniqueness of the card is that its built in economics where there would be no Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) being levied to the merchants by the way of transaction charges or fee associated with respective transaction.
“We are starting with Panaji as a pilot case while other cities will follow and every resident who is a house tax payer and as per KYC norms shall be eligible for this smart card at no cost. Currently we are actively considering a distribution mechanism on these cards. The usage of this card is just not restricted to Goa but across the country with the only difference being the charges” said Chaudhuri
He said “Once the card is handed out, an activation process will be followed for which a call centre would be put in place. Also this call centre would be responsible for addressing all the grievances of the customer such as hot listing in-case the card is lost. The card is very different in multiple ways, with the first being a city card for which every citizen would be proud while the second is that no charge would be levied on the merchant or the customer”
A registered business owner will have the flexibility to come and sign an agreement with IPSCDL which would be standard as per banking norms after which the merchants would be issued a PoS machine free of cost.
The use of this smart card would be on similar lines to the recharge of any mobile SIM card wherein topping up facilities would be established to the limit of RBI from the IPSCDL website or vendors.
Further, this Goa Universal Smart Card System or GUSC shall built and expands in exiting payment facilities such as e-wallets, UPI, BHIM to encourage and facilitate electronic payments at all levels of society.
It may be noted that a majority of RFP’s that have been identified for cities such as Bhubaneswar, Surat and Ahmadabad have tendered this work under Smart City Mission for a capex as well as an opex cost for the delivery of the project. However, in the case of Goa, this project shall be made sustainable entirely without any cost to the exchequer.
It can be recalled that the cabinet secretary order dated April 1, 2016, had constituted a task force under the chairmanship of secretary, department of investment and public assets management (DIPAM) for ensuring implementation of the cabinet decisions on promotion of payments through cards and digital means.
