Mumbai: National Payments Corporation of India today said it has launched the pilot project for Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) with 26 Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units.
BBPS is the Reserve Bank mandated system which will provide interoperable bill payment services to customers.
In the first phase, BBPS will cover repetitive payments for everyday utility services such as electricity, water, gas, telephone and direct-to-home (DTH), NPCI said in a statement here today.
“BBPS, in due course of time, would link all major billers in the country with all their consumers which will simplify bill payments electronically,” NPCI Managing Director and CEO A P Hota said.
Currently, the volume of bills being paid by cash is so large that even if 25 per cent of the bills get paid electronically, the impact would be visibly enormous, he said.
Some of the banking entities which are participating in the pilot project include — AP Mahesh Co-operative Urban Bank, Axis Bank, Gopinath Patil Parsik Janata Sahakari Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and IDBI Bank.
Besides, there are Indian Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank, Punjab National Bank, RBL Bank and State Bank of India.
Avenues India, Common Service Centre, Euronet Services, IndiaIdeas.com(Billdesk), ITZ Cash Card Ltd, One97 Communications Ltd (Paytm), Oxigen Services India Pvt. Ltd, PayU Payments Pvt. Ltd, Spice Digital Ltd and TechProcess Payment Services Ltd are the non-banking entities which are part of the pilot project.
BBPS is an integrated platform connecting banks and non-bank entities in bill aggregation business like billers, payment service providers and retail bill outlets.
As on date, 62 entities have received in-principle approval from RBI to function as Operating Units (OU), out of which 52 are banking and 10 are non-banking entities.
NPCI functions as the authorised Bharat Bill Payment Central Unit (BBPCU) which will undertake clearing and settlement activities related to transactions routed through BBPS.
(Sourced from agencies, Feature image courtesy:)
