new delhi a task force led by nandan nilekani today suggested that 10 lakh business correspondents be appointed to ensure that social sector schemes benefit reach the intended beneficiaries in about six lakh villages the task force on the aadhaarenabled unified payment infrastructure made this recommendation so that these one million mini atms could be used to make payments to beneficiaries in 225 lakh gram panchayats containing six lakh villages besides serving the urban poor banking correspondents are the persons who facilitate banking and financial services at places where fullfledged banking services are not available it further said that the government should bear the last mile transaction fee of 314 per cent subject to a cap of rs 20 per payment these recommendations form a part of the report which was presented today to the finance minister pranab mukherjee by uidaichairman nandan nilekani in the presence of agriculture minister sharad pawar rural development minister jairam ramesh and food minister k v thomas at present the rural banking infrastructure only consist of about 30000 bank branches and 120000 post offices in contrast to the 80000 bank branches 150000 post offices 88000 atms and five lakh point of sale machines in the entire country we have recommended a network of 10 lakh micro atms around the country which are going to be small electronic devices in various villages nilekani told reporters after meeting the mukherjee we have also recommended transaction fee but the govt will take a final decision this is a platform for any payment to anyone be it entailment payment subsidy payment procurement payment we have been given direction to work on this and roll it out in next one year he added