Panaji, Nov 27 (TNN): Goa is likely to become the first state in India to go cashless from December 31, as people will be able to buy perishables such as fish, meat, vegetables or anything else at the press of a button on their mobile.

There will be no need to carry your purse for purchases and the profession of pickpocketers may become extinct soon, as all transactions will be done on the mobile. "The money on purchases will be debited to the person's bank account," chief secretary R K Srivastava told STOI.

One has to dial *99# from their mobile phone, not necessarily a smart phone, and follow the instructions to complete the transcation. This system is being introduced to transfer money to small vendors who do not have swipe machines. Swiping of ATM and credit cards at shops and establishments will also continue.

A drive to create awareness on how to operate the cashless transaction for vendors and small shops and the public will commence on Monday at Mapusa and Panaji, in Goa.

While cash transactions are not being banned, the move is to encourage a cashless society. Also, there will be no minimum limit on the cashless transfer of money. Chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar said no fees will be charged for any of these transactions over the mobile.

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday held a meeting with government officials and all the major nationalized and private banks. During the meeting, Parrikar discussed the modalities to implement the cashless scheme in the state.

Parrikar said at the Vijay Sankalp Rally at Sankhali on Friday that PM Narendra Modi had a dream about a cashless society and "they told me that Goa can become the first state to go cashless". 

"One thing we decided is that whenever India becomes a cashless society, Goa will become the first. We have to support the prime minister's dream," Parrikar added saying that your mobile can become your bank and one can do anything once he/she has registered her/his mobile number with the bank under the central government unified payment interference (UPI).

Srivastava said that Goa has an added advantage to be become the first cashless society because it is a small state with about 15 lakh population and 17 lakh mobile phone connections. "We have 22 lakh bank accounts, which means that one person has more than one account," he said. Most of the people in Goa use debit or credit cards while purchasing and hence it will not be a problem to go cashless, he added. 

He also said that from Monday, people will be educated on the cashless transaction and the exact plan would be finalized on Sunday. Explaining how it works, Srivastava said that every vendor who registers with the bank would be given an MMID code.

Once a person purchases fish, vegetable etc. the customer just needs to dial the designated number (*99#) and punch in details of her/his account and the amount the customer needs to transfer to the vendor and then the customer has to enter the MI code of the vendor to transfer the funds. Within no time, the money would be transferred from the customer's account to the vendor's account.

"Everybody should have an account, card and the account should have money," Srivastava said.