Mumbai: Banks will have to give account holders an option to activate the Unified Payments Interface.is i) using the service Aadhaar And OTP Instead of debit cards from March 15, 2022. This is after the introduction of this facility by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) in September 2021.
The new feature was introduced to enable customers who either do not have a debit card or whose debit card has not been activated to start using UPI. This was made possible by linking NPCI with Unique Identification Authority of India on behalf of the customer’s bank. While NPCI had enabled this facility, it was up to the banks to extend it to their customers.
However, this will be possible only if the UPI application is used on the same mobile as the Aadhaar-registered mobile number and the same number is registered with the bank. NPCI had initially asked banks to comply by December 15, 2021. But delays in preparation had given priority to other product features, with the deadline extended to March 15, 2022.
Currently, most bank applications require the customer to authenticate himself using his/her debit card. This would mean that the UPI feature is available only to those who have access to digital banking.
According to the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan The scheme website, which gives details on the coverage of the Universal Bank Account Scheme, has approximately 45 crore beneficiary accounts. Of these, about 30 crore are in rural and semi-urban centers and the rest in urban and metro centres. However, only 31.4 crore beneficiaries have been provided RuPay Debit Card. Also, bankers say that many account holders have not activated their debit cards.
RBI is now trying to push UPI as a financial inclusion tool by expanding the services of feature phones. On Tuesday, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das launched UPI 123Pay – a simplified form of account-to-account transfer service that can be done using a feature phone. RBI has allowed payment service providers to enable feature phones using one of four technologies – interactive voice response, missed calls, feature phone apps or proximity sound-based payments.
The new feature was introduced to enable customers who either do not have a debit card or whose debit card has not been activated to start using UPI. This was made possible by linking NPCI with Unique Identification Authority of India on behalf of the customer’s bank. While NPCI had enabled this facility, it was up to the banks to extend it to their customers.
However, this will be possible only if the UPI application is used on the same mobile as the Aadhaar-registered mobile number and the same number is registered with the bank. NPCI had initially asked banks to comply by December 15, 2021. But delays in preparation had given priority to other product features, with the deadline extended to March 15, 2022.
Currently, most bank applications require the customer to authenticate himself using his/her debit card. This would mean that the UPI feature is available only to those who have access to digital banking.
According to the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan The scheme website, which gives details on the coverage of the Universal Bank Account Scheme, has approximately 45 crore beneficiary accounts. Of these, about 30 crore are in rural and semi-urban centers and the rest in urban and metro centres. However, only 31.4 crore beneficiaries have been provided RuPay Debit Card. Also, bankers say that many account holders have not activated their debit cards.
RBI is now trying to push UPI as a financial inclusion tool by expanding the services of feature phones. On Tuesday, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das launched UPI 123Pay – a simplified form of account-to-account transfer service that can be done using a feature phone. RBI has allowed payment service providers to enable feature phones using one of four technologies – interactive voice response, missed calls, feature phone apps or proximity sound-based payments.