RBI Looking To Add New Feature To UPI Payments

Reserve Bank of India Governor (RBI) Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday said it decided to add a new feature in its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform where the delivery of service or goods happens later such as e-commerce purchases, hotel bookings or investments in equities.

Through the 'single-block-and-multiple debits' feature on the UPI platform, the RBI Governor said that customers will have more trust while carrying out such transactions.

By introducing single-block-and-multiple-debits functionality, Shaktikanta Das said this facility will enable a customer to block funds in his/her account for specific purposes, which can be debited whenever needed.

"It has...been decided to introduce a single-block-and-multiple-debits functionality in UPI, which will significantly enhance the ease of making payments in e-commerce space and towards investments in securities," RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said after announcing the bi-monthly policy review.

The speech of Governor Shaktikanta Das on RBI website said this facility would enable a customer to block funds in his/her account for specific purposes, which can be debited whenever needed. This will significantly enhance the ease of making payments for investments in securities including through the Retail Direct platform as well as e-commerce transactions.

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In another development, the Governor said the RBI was expanding the scope of Bharat Bill Payment System.

He said the BBPS has been steadily expanding since its launch in 2017 and currently, it handles recurring bill payments for merchants and utilities and does not cater to non-recurring bills.

The RBI Governor said it also does not cater to bill payments or collections such as payment of fees for professional services, education fees, tax payments and rent collections, among other, for individuals even if those are recurring in nature.

Therefore, he said the scope of BBPS is being enhanced to include all categories of payments and collections, both recurring and non-recurring, and for all categories of billers (businesses and individuals).

"This will make the BBPS platform accessible to a wider set of individuals and businesses which can benefit from the transparent payments experience, faster access to funds and improved efficiency," he added.

(With inputs from ANI)

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