New Delhi:  In a bid to boost digital transactions and create a cashless India, the Central government is likely to ban all cheque books.

A senior functionary of industry body CAIT had last week said that the Centre may withdraw the bank cheque book facility in the ‘near future’ to encourage digital transactions.

Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said the government needs to encourage the use of debit and credit cards.

“In all probability, the Centre may withdraw the cheque book facility in the near future to encourage digital transactions,” he said.

The CAIT secretary general said: “The government spends Rs 25,000 crore on the printing of currency notes and another Rs 6,000 crore on their security and logistics”.

“Moreover, banks charge 1 percent on payments through debit card and 2 percent through credit cards. The government needs to incentivise this process by providing subsidy directly to the banks so these charges can be waived”.

Khandelwal said only 5 percent of the total 80-crore ATM-cum-debit cards are used for cashless transactions, while 95 percent of them are used for cash withdrawals.