The Narendra Modi government is moving ahead with its plan to replace all card transactions with the 12-digit Aadhaar number. The Director General Unique Identification Authority of India, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, on Thursday said that Aadhaar cardholders will soon be given the option of debiting or crediting money to their Aadhar-linked bank accounts. The person will have to key in their Aadhaar number and undergo a fingerprint or iris scanner verification for each transaction, according to The Hindu.

Pandey told Economic Times that these will be card-less and PIN-less transactions. “This will enable Android mobile phones users to digitally transact using their Aadhaar number and fingerprint/iris authentication. There are currently 1.31 crore transactions per day through Aadhaar and we can handle up to 10 crore transactions per day. We will soon be able to manage 40 crore transactions each day,” he added.

Niti Aayog Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant said there will soon be an app available on Android phones that will enable Aadhaar-linked banking services. “In another 15 days there will be an Android app to allow mobile phones with external or in-built retina and fingerprint scanners to allow these services,” he added. Kant is part of a three-member panel that has been set up to find out the minimum time and cost it will take to move to a cashless economy.

Apart from Android phones, the government is also looking at offering similar services on GSM phones, e-wallets, unified payments interfaces and card swipe machines.

The government also plans to disincentive so that cash transactions become costly and people are encouraged to pay digitally. Information Technology Secretary Aruna Sundarajan said they have allotted Rs 100 crore to “incentivise” merchants for enrolment on to digital platforms. “The IT department is providing incentive of Rs 100 for every merchant enrolled through over two lakh common service centres across India,” she told Economic Times.