Hyderabad: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das reeled out a list of development measures aimed at improving services in the payments ecosystem. The RBI hopes to expand the scope and reach of e-RUPI vouchers by allowing non-banking Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) issuers and enabling issuance of e-RUPI vouchers on behalf of individuals.
The decision was taken keeping in view the benefits for users and beneficiaries alike. "Other aspects like reloading of vouchers, authentication process, issuance limits, etc., will also be modified to facilitate use of e-RUPI vouchers. Separate instructions will be issued shortly," the RBI governor said. Three payments-system related additional measures were part of the announcements made by the RBI governor during the bi-monthly RBI monetary policy announcement.
What is e-RUPI? Digital voucher e-RUPI, launched in August 2021, rides on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). NPCI launched it in association with Department of Financial Services (DFS), National Health Authority (NHA), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), and partner banks.
At present, purpose-specific vouchers are issued by banks on behalf of Central and State Governments and to a limited extent on behalf of corporates. The users of e-RUPI will be able to redeem the voucher without a card, digital payments app or internet banking access, at the merchants accepting e-RUPI.
The digital voucher can be shared with the beneficiaries for a specific purpose or activity by organisations or Government via SMS or QR code. It is a contactless one time payment mechanism which the NPCI claims to be an easy, safe and secure mode of payment. In this process, the details of the beneficiaries will be completely confidential. The entire transaction process uses only the provided digital voucher and is relatively faster and at the same time reliable. Since it is prepaid, the required amount will be already stored in the voucher.
