State plans subsidy for UID-linked micro-ATMs

In order to give a boost to financial inclusion, the state government is mulling providing a transaction-based subsidy for last mile business correspondents (BCs), who provide unique identification card (UID)-linked biometric micro-ATM services in rural areas.

It is firming up such a scheme with UID officials and banks, said a senior government official involved in the exercise. The state is toying with “various options” in this regard, like a subsidy on the first 500 or 1,000 transactions by BCs or a date-based system.

A task force under Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani has mooted the use of micro-ATMs to disburse cash subsidies and benefits under government schemes, apart from recommending setting up a network of 10 lakh micro-ATMs operated by BCs across the country.

Stating that the transaction-based subsidy would be better than a capital-based one, to incentivise the last mile BCs, the official said the state was planning to rope in the 5,000 common service centres, apart from the SANGRAM centres set up by the rural development department to serve as BCs.