SINGAPORE: The government’s demonetisation move has deepened digital payments penetration in the country by pushing people to pay for personal consumption items electronically, according to TR Ramachandran , group country manager for India and South Asia at Visa Consolidated Support Services (I) Pvt Ltd.Non-discretionary categories such as fuel and groceries are also adding to digital transactions, he said. “India has perhaps leapfrogged three-four years and achieved what otherwise could have happened in 2020,” Ramachandran said at a media briefing here. “There has been a significant increase in digital payments penetration post demonetisation. In the overall context, we look at what is known as PCE (personal consumption expenditures),” he said.The current penetration of digital payments for these expenses is 7-9%, according to Ramachandran.“So this is not a one year or two years, but a multiyear opportunity to convert cash into digital. Consumers are slowly but steadily embracing digital payments. Moving towards cashless economy is a Utopian world . Moving less cash is certainly realistic and within the realm of 2017,” he said.India represents perhaps the single-largest cash displacement opportunity. Its PCE is about 60% of its GDP . In dollar terms, it is about a trillion dollars, and less than 8% of that is digital, according to an estimate by credit card company Visa. With 10 NEFTs and cheques, that number moves to about 11.5%, which means there is digitalisation opportunity of about $900 billion, Ramachandran said.“If digitalisation was to increase in India by 10%, then the estimated cost of cash would be 1.5% of GDP. So, a 10% increase means that by 2022 India will save Rs 4 lakh crore. This is the size of the savings potential for digitalisation. We must take steps,” Ramachandran said.Referring to demonetisation, or the currency swap programme initiated by the government last year, Ramachandran said, “We have not really gone back to November levels and the stability now is still significantly higher than what pre-demonetisation levels were. Of course, a little lower as compared to December and January, which were obviously the highest when there was no cash at all. It’s gratifying to see a couple of things.”(The writer was in Singapore at the invitation of Visa)