National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella organisation for all retail payment systems in the country has declared Rs. 54.90 crore worth of prize money to over 3.42 lakh winners of NITI Aayog’s Lucky Draw Schemes for consumers and merchants.

The two schemes are - Lucky Grahak Yojna (LGY) and Digi-Dhan Vyapar Yojna (DVY). They were launched on December 25, 2016 and will remain open till April 14, 2017.

The schemes have total outlay of Rs 340 crore of which - Rs. 300 crores would be spent on consumers and merchants while the remaining Rs. 40 crore on awareness and publicity. Total winners under the scheme are expected to be over 18.75 lakh.

The schemes are aimed at incentivising both consumers and merchants to promote digital payments. There are 15,000 daily winners qualifying for total prize money of Rs 1.5 crore.

In addition to this there are over 14,000 weekly winners qualifying for total prize money of over Rs. 8.3 crore every week.

Customers and merchants using RuPay Card, BHIM / UPI (Bharat Interface for Money / Unified Payments Interface), USSD based *99# service and Aadhaar Enabled Payment Service (AePS) are eligible for wining daily and weekly lucky draw prizes, NPCI said.

NPCI, in a statement, said there has been a positive response among people from various age groups and occupations to adopt digital payments.

The statement said Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka emerged as the top five states with maximum number of winners.

Majority of the winners were in the age group of 21 to 30 years. There were also a good number of winners who are above 50 years.

All digital transactions done by consumers and merchants from November 9, 2016 till April 14, 2017 will be eligible for winning prize under the schemes.

All such transactions irrespective of the fact whether it has won daily / weekly prize, will be eligible for Mega Draw to be conducted on April 14, 2017.

There are three mega prizes for consumers worth Rs 1 crore, Rs 50 lakh and Rs 25 lakh. For merchants too there would be three mega prizes worth Rs 50 lakh, Rs 25 lakh and Rs 12 lakh.

The draw of winners are presented at different centres on each day by the senior officials of NPCI in the presence of senior minister from GoI, representatives of NITI Aayog and general public.

NPCI is also working with the government to organise Digi Dhan Melas at 110 locations till April 14, 2017 by demonstrating the above mentioned products to promote digital payment. This will help to inculcate digital payments as a habit amongst the masses.

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