Paytm collects Rs 30 crore from 12 lakh users for Kerala flood relief fund

Payments company Paytm, founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, announced that it has collected Rs 30 crore in four days from 12 lakh users for Kerala flood victims. The company opened their services to collect donations on August 15 and has witnessed an outpour of love since then.

Paytm allows users an option to donate to Kerala CM's Distress Relief Fund. The company also said that every donation or contribution made to the Kerala CM's relief fund on Paytm is completely exempted from taxes under Section 80G (2) of the Income Tax Act 1961.

These transactions are not charged by Paytm. The company said in their blog that Paytm would match amounts up to Rs 1 crore from their side. Users who want receipts can get it directly from the official website of the CM's relief fund.

However, not only Paytm, other tech companies are also helping in their own ways. For instance, Google activated its Person Finder to locate missing people. Zomato has called for food donations, while Amazon India has partnered up with local NGOs to distribute goods. BigBasket is asking its customers to buy goods for people stuck in the floods.

Unlike the company, Paytm founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma has been severely trolled for his donation.  Sharma tweeted on August 17 that he donated Rs 10,000 to the Kerala flood relief, leading people to scoff at the paltry sum. An amount of Rs 10,000 is indeed, not paltry but a sizeable one, but Twitterati felt that Sharma, India's youngest billionaire could have spared a few extra bucks for the state ravaged by floods. The Paytm head has also been trolled earlier for his contribution of Rs 500 to the Indian armed forces during Armed Forces Flag Day. He had tweeted screenshots of his donations then too.

The floods in the state, the worst in 100 years, has already taken 370 lives and displaced over 8,00,000 people so far. The state is believed to have bared an estimated loss of more than Rs 19,000 crore.