All categories of billers to be covered by Bharat Bill Payment System: RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is working for the further integration of Bharat Bill Payments System(BBPS) with the existing payment disbursal services.

In a statement released during the Monetary Policy Press Conference held on Wednesday, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das informed the media that all categories of billers who provide recurring bill payments will be permitted to onboard the BPPS on a voluntary basis with the exception of billers providing only prepaid recharges.

BBPS was launched as an interoperable system for repeated bill payments developed by National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI) to make bill payments easier. You can pay your bills using BBPS from anywhere anytime. It allows users to pay bills through networks of agents or online, providing instant confirmation of the payment and the option of paying through multiple payment modes.  

Apart from the digitization of cash-based payments, the bill payment sector stands to benefit from features such as Standardized bill payment experience of customers, a customer grievance redressal mechanism and a prescribed customer grievance fee.

Consumers can currently use the platform for disbursal of bills for utilities like gas, electricity, water and for their DTH/telecom bills as well. There are plans to introduce payments such as school fee, university fee, municipality taxes, mutual funds, and insurance premiums in the future.

Additionally, the governor also announced the provision of on tap authorization to companies willing to function as or provide platforms for Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU), Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) and White Label ATMs (WLAs) in order encourage innovation and competition in the sector while diversifying the risk.

The detailed framework regarding BBPS integration will be released by the apex bank by September-end this year.

Notably, in efforts to push the digital retail payments ecosystem in India. RBI also announced that NEFT  retail payment system will be made available on a 24×7 basis from December along with the introduction of a Central Registry to track Fraud Payments.