Govt launches drive to on-board 8.68 lakh street vendors for digital payments

The IT ministry along with the housing and urban affairs is launching a special drive in 223 cities to on-board more than 8 lakh street vendors to start accepting and making digital payments. The drive has been launched under PM SVANidhi scheme.

"The special drive aims to accelerate on-boarding of street vendors on the UPI QR code and handhold them to start accepting and making digital payment transactions. Five major aggregators including Paytm, Phone Pe, Bharat Pe, Mswipe and Aceware have agreed to participate in 45-day special drive for digitally onboarding the street vendors with BHIM-UPI QR code on pro-bono basis," Ministry of Electronics and IT said in a statement. The move is expected to enable inclusion of street vendors in the formal credit ecosystem, and help in driving financial inclusion of the unorganized sector.

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"The drive will cover 223 cities across the country with around 8,68,184 street vendors to be onboarded under various urban local bodies. Digital Payment Aggregators will educate the street vendors about the benefits of digital payments such as convenience, increased operational efficiency, seamless transfer of funds, cost saving, transparency and security," the statement said.