mumbai use of debit cards can be popularised in the country if reserve bank of india rbi accepts a proposal that banks cut fees for debit card payments by bringing down merchant discount rate mdr or card commissions a study by indian institute of technology mumbaiiitb said herethe study presents key issues relating to indias retail payment system and focuses on how the country can transit from the existing cash based retail payments to cashless paymentstransition from the existing cash based retail payments to cashless payments can occur by promoting payment through debit cards professor ashish das and rakhi agarwal of the department of mathematics said in a technical report cashless payment system in india a roadmap which has been submitted to the rbithis will require rationalising costs associated with the use of debit cards making them more secure and conducting focused financial education programs for increasing public awareness das saidthis transition would lead to saving currency management costs and generate valuable information on spending behaviour of the masses he saidwith an eye to boost an efficient cashless payment system for the country the report has suggested directions for optimising usage and rationalising pricing patternsthough card based payment systems have been in vogue for several years its use and popularity is still limited the study saidthere are 190 lakh credit and 1900 lakh debit cards in the system but annually there are just 11 transactions per credit card and one transaction per debit card he saidthis study carried out a review of the roles performed by various players of the system to locate reasons for this subdued transition to cashless payments das said adding that it arrived at a structured and implementable road map to move towards a cashless retail payment system in indiadirectoriib prof devang khakhar saidthe work of professor ashish das professor of statistics on benefits of cashless retail payment exemplifies the important role of statistics for policy i am sure that the government of india and the reserve bank will find his analysis valuable in their efforts for bringing down the currency management costsdas said the report gives an indepth understanding of the concept and working of the card based payment systemit gives a systematic analysis of the payment system for the countrys enormous retail sector das said adding that the study also conducted a survey among merchants apart from an extensive review of international practices and independent interactions with major market playersdas said major recommendations of the study are encourage usage of nofrill debit cards and bring in awareness on debit card usage among merchants and cardholders through focused financial education campaigns mdr on all nofrill debit cards be fixed at 02 per cent per transaction with a cap at rs 20 a nosurcharge rule can be applied strictly to nofrill debit cards make all debit card transactions at pos pinbased cash withdrawal at pos can be clubbed with purchase and merchants to be given freedom to surcharge on credit cards