Cabinet clears scheme to promote RuPay debit cards

NEW DELHI:  Aiming to strengthen digital payment ecosystem, the Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs 2,600 crore scheme for promoting RuPay debit cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions.

Under the scheme, banks will be provided financial incentive for promoting point-of-sale (PoS) and e-commerce transactions using RuPay debit cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions (P2M) for current financial year FY 2022-23.

“This incentive scheme will facilitate building a robust e-payment ecosystem and promoting RuPay Debit Card and BHIM-UPI digital transactions,” said the statement by the Press Information Bureau. “In-line with the objective of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’, the scheme will also promote UPI Lite and UPI 123PAY as economical and user-friendly digital payments solutions and enable further deepening of digital payments across all sectors and segments of the population,” it added.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her Budget speech for FY2022-23, announced the government’s intent to continue financial support for digital payments announced in the previous Budget, with a focus on promoting use of payment platforms.