RBI Launches ‘UPI123Pay’
Now as an UPI (Unified Payment Interface) user you don’t need an internet connection or smartphone for the payments. Now RBI (Reserve Bank of India) is all set to launch the new UPI service called ‘UPI123Pay’ on Tuesday. This government initiative will bring UPI payment services to feature phones. Now the feature phone users can be a part of the digital payment system of our country.
Central Bank of India announces about the new service on Twitter and wrote “ Watch out for the launch of UPI for feature phones – UPI123Pay and 24*7 helpline for digital payments – DigiSaathi by RBI Governor @DasShaktikanta at 12 noon on March 08, 2022.”
Current UPI System
New UPI service will open the doors of digital payments for feature phone users in India. Smartphones are being used but there is still a healthy ratio of feature phone users also. At the present time the UPI services are available for the smartphone users only which require internet connection.
UPI has become a very popular and convenient mode of online payment transfers. Now citizens are less concerned about carrying cash than before. It has become the largest retail payment system in the country. From large Malls to street vendors, they all have UPI QR codes to receive payments.
Why Do We Require UPI Payments For Feature Phones?
For this answer we have to take a look at the statement said by RBI Governor ‘Shaktikanta Das’. He announced the launch of UPI payments for feature phones on November 8, 2022.
Said “In order to further deepen digital payments and make them more inclusive, ease transactions for consumers, facilitate greater participation of retail customers in various segments of the financial markets and enhance the capacity of service providers, it is proposed to launch UPI-based payment products for feature phone users leveraging on the Reserve Bank’s regulatory Sandbox on Retail Payments.”
Read the official RBI notification about UPI124Pay here.
Central Bank of India & RBI said
“India has a large mobile phone consumer base of about 118 crore mobile users (TRAI, October 2021)1 of which about 74 crore (Statista, July 2021) have smartphones indicating that there is a significant number of feature phone users in the country. Feature phone users have limited access to innovative payment products.” said by Central Bank Of India.
Statement released by RBI goes as “To deepen financial penetration, it is important to bring feature phone users into the mainstream digital payments. In the first cohort of RBI Regulatory Sandbox, some innovators had successfully demonstrated their solutions for feature phone payments under the theme of ‘Retail Payments’. These products, coupled with other complimentary solutions, will facilitate UPI-based digital payment solutions on feature phones to promote wider digitisation.”
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How UPI123Pay Will Be Helpful To US?
This answer was given by the resource specialist ‘Siddharth Maurya’ in his statement.
“Popular UPI payment platforms such as PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm are now more than just payment tools and transforming into full-stack financial service providers. As digital payment systems are set to trump offline transactions, increasing the limit is a welcome step. This is also in sync with the government’s long-term agenda to build start-up India and Digital India.”
