Encouraging Digital Payments among Street Vendors under PM SVANidhi Scheme

Due to the covid 19 pandemic, street vendors have found themselves with a long list of unending troubles; With the initial lockdown, many vendors were unable to make it to their hometowns, and were forced to endure the high rents of urban cities, whilst not being able to generate any income from their stall. The PM SVANidhi Scheme was launched to alleviate some of the burden from the street vendors.

Street vendors, despite the relatively small scale of their operation, are also running a business at the end of the day. As it is with any business, a street stall or a billion dollar MNC, when it times of economic peril that is beyond the business’ control, it requires a stimulus or aid from the government. The PM SVANidhi scheme aims to provide this stimulus in the form of business loans upto 10,000 rupees. Under the scheme, vendors can get a loan at an interest rate of 7% per annum, with additional cashback being offered when a vendor uses any means of digital payment  to make their interest payments. In this article, let’s take a look at how the digital payments for the PM SVANidhi scheme works, and how a vendor can make digital payments.

How vendors can make digital payments.

As part of the PM SVANidhi scheme, vendors can make digital payments from the following approved modes.

1. BharatPe
2. RuPay Debit Card
3. Amazon Pay
4. Google Pay
5. PhonePe
6. Other UPI codes for any of the aforementioned companies.

The PM SVANidhi Mobile App.

To go hand in hand with the digital push of the PM SVANidhi scheme, the government has also launched a PM SVANidhi Mobile App for android, which it urges beneficiaries of the scheme to have installed. Under the app, vendors can track the status of their loan, and access information about how much they have received, what their interest payments are looking like, what percentage they have repaid, what percentage is balance, and additional loan taking opportunities to further facilitate their vending businesses.

Benefits of making digital interest payments.

Digital payments offer a number of benefits over making payments through other physical modes. Here are some benefits.

1. Digital payments ensure that vendors personally oversee the payment and do not have to rely on additional people who could scam them. Digital payments are much more secure, and instant, leaving no room for exploitation.

2. Instantaneous payments means you can check if your payment has been received instantly.

3. Digital payments are much more convenient and do not take up much time.

4. Unlike with cash or cheque payments, there is a very low risk of theft.

5. The entire payment process is transparent, allowing vendors the time to focus on their business, instead of having to deal with bureaucratic roadblocks. Not having to interact with officials means they can make worry free payments.

Conclusion

The digital push for the PM SVANidhi scheme allows vendors to take loans that they can repay online using UPI and digital payments. They can also benefit from receiving loans quicker, and being sure of their payments being received, alongside paying only what they owe, and nothing more.