New Delhi, Dec 22 (UNI) Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has trained 44-lakh citizens and 1,30,000 merchants for digital payments to make India less cash economy. Inaugurating a National Workshop on Electronic Government Payments and Receipts (EPR) organised by MeitY, Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, said, 'Our efforts are still on to train more and more people and Merchants. EPR workshop is an initiative to augment the DigiDhan Abhiyan initiated by Government of India.' 'Such workshops will help us in understanding the overall ecosystem and collaborating and addressing the challenges related to the Government payments & receipts from perspective of last mile payers & payees,' she said. The EPR workshop aimed at bringing all the stakeholders in Government Payments and Receipts ecosystem on a common level of awareness about various solutions. MeitY introduced initiatives at national level being undertaken for immediate adoption of electronic modes payments and receipts. 'It is the Government’s declared mandate to go from high-cash system to less-cash and then towards cash-less system. There is a drive under Digital India to make interaction with Government paperless, faceless and cashless. All Government departments need to be familiar with the frameworks, rules and changing technologies with respect to EPR framework whether it is Government to Governments (G2G) or Government to Consumer (G2C) transactions, we have to move into the digital paradigm,' she added. 'As far as G2C is concerned, by April 1, 2017 all entitlements shall be given through Aadhaar enabled Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) channels. India is embracing new technology like UPI and Aadhaar and is going beyond conventional technologies, setting an example for the rest of the world on digital empowerment of its citizens,' Ms Sundararajan added. She emphasised on need to ensure secured and seamless transactions in all financial transactions and designate a Cyber Information Security Officer in all such Government Departments that carry financial transactions with Government, Business and Citizens. Ganesh Kumar, Chief General Manager of RBI shared important guidelines issued by the RBI to ensure safe and seamless electronic transactions and to ensure the interest of end users. Mr Kumar highlighted the need to factor direct and indirect costs involved in cash transactions, both on the part of receiver and payee while deliberating on the transaction charges for online payments. The workshop was attended by officials from Central and State Government Departments, Banks, NPCI, Payment Card network companies, pre-paid instrument providers, Payment service providers, Aggregators, Technology service providers and Regulators The workshop deliberated on challenges in government payments and receipts from the perspective of last mile Payers and Payees as Residents/ Institutions, Government Departments’ and PSP’s perspectives. UNI ADP AE SNU 1611