Police, tourism sector in Goa to go cashless soon

Panaji, Dec 1  A few days after Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar announced making Goa the first cashless state, Goa Tourism and Goa Police introduced several initiatives to make their functioning cashless.

The Goa Police said that systems were being put in place to pay traffic fines by debit or credit card.

Goa Tourism said payments for hotel reservation and other tourism-related services would soon be totally done via plastic money or e-wallets. 

Both departments said that its officials were being trained to get accustomed to the transition.

"All Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) residencies are provided with point-of-sale (POS) machines to facilitate cashless payments and most tourists prefer to use this facility. 

"It is encouraging to see tourists opting for cashless transactions," GTDC's General Manager (Hotels) Gavin Dias said. 

He said that other services like packaged holiday tours and cruise rides would also be brought on the online platform.

Currently, apart from its own hotels and guest houses, GTDC has direct reservation tie-ups with 160 hotels across the state.

Last week, Parrikar chaired a meeting of bureaucrats and bankers in the state, to work out ways to maximise cashless transactions here by December 30.

Meanwhile, Deputy Inspector General of Police V.A. Gupta said that the first cashless initiative of the department would be to allow payment of traffic fines by debit and credit cards.

"The traffic department has a lot of cash transaction points. Soon people will be able to pay traffic fines by swiping debit and credit cards," Gupta said.

The other police department fees would also be enabled on the online platform by January 2017.