The Reserve Bank (RBI) issued final guidelines for the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), thus helping consumers pay multiple bills like electricity, telephone and school fees at a single point of transaction."The BBPS is an integrated bill payment system offering inter-operable and accessible bill payment service to customers through a network of agents, enabling multiple payment modes, and providing instant confirmation of payment," the RBI said in a notification.The RBI-promoted payment retail gateway and the issuer of the Rupay debit Cards, the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has been appointed as the nodal body.The apex banks has set a Rs 100-crore net worth and domestic registration as qualifying conditions for those seeking to be authorised collection agents.The move will help track all the payments being made in economy, including cash payments to utilities, schools, and telcos among others.
The final guidelines came a day after the RBI came out with the final guidelines for licensing of payment and small banks.To start with, the aggregators, who will be operating under a single brand name across the country, will collect repetitive bills which come in monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly cycles like utility bills, it said, adding the aim is to gradually include payments for school or university fees and municipal taxes.
The RBI said the participants in the BBPS will include authorised entities such as BPCU, BBPOUs as well as their authorised agents, payment gateways, banks, billers and service providers, and other entities,
including authorised prepaid payment instrument issuers.The guidelines have detailed out the process of clearing and settlement, as well as customer protection and grievance redressal.
