Mumbai: For the convenience of people to pay school fees and
municipal taxes and utility bills through an integrated platform, the Reserve
Bank on Thursday proposed setting up an "anytime anywhere" bill
payment system.
Bill payment is a major component of the retail
payment transactions as over 3,080 crore bills amounting to more than Rs
6,00,000 crore are generated each year in the top 20 cities in the country.
Though various forms of payments are accepted, cash
and cheque payments continue to be predominant, particularly at the Billers'
Own Collection Point.
The existing systems do not fully address the needs
of the consumers/customers to pay a variety of bills including utility bills,
school/university fee, municipal taxes, due to lack of interoperability in the
payment processes as well as lack of access to various modes of electronic
payments by a vast majority of customers, the RBI said.
In this backdrop, the RBI has proposed Bharat Bill
Payment System (BBPS) with an objective to implement an integrated bill payment
system and "offer interoperable and accessible bill payment service to
customers through a network of agents, enabling multiple payment modes, and
providing instant confirmation of payment.
"Hence, it has been decided that the existing
players in the online commerce segment catering to the requirements of bill
payments as well as aggregation of payment services (in relation to bill
payments) will be a part of BBPS," the RBI's draft guidelines said.
The BBPS, it said will function as a tiered structure
for operating the bill payment system with a "single brand image"
providing convenience of "anytime anywhere" bill payment.
The centralised bill payments infrastructure will
consist of two types of entities – (i) Entity operating the BBPS, which will be
the standard setting body and (ii) Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units
(BBPOUs), which will be the authorized operational units.
The structure could be further strengthened through
an effective establishment of agent network/s by the BBPOUs.
The entity seeking approval for operating BBPS should
be a section 25 company under the Companies Act 1956.
The criteria for BBPOUs is that the entity should be
a company registered under the Companies Act with a net worth of at least Rs
100 crore. Also, the entity must have been incorporated in India
The guidelines further said "the brand of the
BBPS would enjoin the trust and confidence of the customers only if it
facilitates an effective, efficient and centralised mechanism for handling
customer complaints and grievances".
BBPS will put in place a dispute resolution mechanism
to handle disputes arising between system participants.
Responsibility of BBPOUs will also be handling
customer grievances and disputes for billers/agents/end-customers.
//copy// PTI
