NPCI has issued new guidelines for UPI platforms regarding prepaid vouchers. Under this, payment can be completed through prepaid vouchers without UPI app or bank account. For this, there will be no need to spend on any kind of infrastructure.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has issued new guidelines for the Unified Payment Services (UPI) platform. Under this new guideline, electronic vouchers can be issued to mobile phone holders without any app or bank account. These vouchers can be used for one time payment. Through this, OTP authentication has also been added to make the payment secure.
The central government also wants to promote covid vaccination under private infrastructure with the help of vouchers. However, in the long run, UPI prepaid vouchers can play an even more important role in our payment system. It can be used as one time payment instrument. This can prove to be a better option than other prepaid instruments like gift cards.
Get rid of the cost of plastic prepaid
Issuing a plastic prepaid card at present proves to be extremely costly. A bank has to spend around Rs 200 on a plastic prepaid card with a chip. This includes the printing, delivery and other logistic expenses of the card. But promotion of UPI prepaid vouchers can get rid of such expenses.
UPI prepaid vouchers can be directly transferred to the customer’s mobile phone. This can be in the form of a quick response code or an SMS string. Another layer will be used as security through OTP.
No need to have a bank account or UPI app
Giving information about this to all the participants of the UPI system, NPCI said that banks can issue these prepaid vouchers to the wholesale buyer. They will be considered as the sponsors of these vouchers. These vouchers can be in the form of corporate, state government, central government, or business customers of any bank. The beneficiary of this prepaid voucher can be any person using the smartphone. For this it is not necessary that they have a bank account or have any UPI app installed in their phone.
What will be the limit and other conditions?
Like other prepaid vouchers, a maximum limit of Rs 10,000 has been fixed in this. It will also have a merchant code to ensure that a prepaid voucher is used only for a particular item or service. This will ensure that the vouchers issued for the vaccine can only be used for the vaccine. Similarly, the vouchers issued for food grains can be used only on the public distribution system.
No need for other expenditure on infrastructure
In a media report, sources in the payment industry have been quoted as saying that the best thing under this system is that other expenses are being saved for the banks, apart from this, there is no need for any other kind of infrastructure. The use of such prepaid vouchers can be accepted only through the mobile app. Features The payment can be completed by scanning the SMS string sent in the phone from the app.
