Cashless push: No tax on sale/rental of swipe machines in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: In a bid to promote cashless transactions in Gujarat, the state government today announced withdrawal of the tax applicable on the sale and rental income of the Point of Sale (PoS)-swipe machines.

At present, government charges 2.5 per cent and 12.5 per cent tax, respectively, on the sale and rental income of such machines.

"At a time when Central government is pushing for cashless economy, state government has decided to encourage such transactions. Thus, we are abolishing the prevalent tax levied on the sale as well as on the income generated by renting of the swipe machines," announced Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel at Gandhinagar.

According to him, such swipe machines are purchased by banks and given on rent to merchants to accept payments through debit or credit cards from customers.

"Our government has also decided to provide two swipe machines each to villages having more than 10,000 population free of cost. Both these steps by our government would give a boost to cashless transactions across the state," Patel added.