Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Shaktikanta Das, on Friday, made an announcement which would help non-resident Indians to pay bills for family members living in India.
According to the proposal put forward by RBI, NRI’s would not be able to pay off all kinds of bills, including utility bills, education bills and similar payments using online services provided by the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS).
Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS)
Bharat Bill Payment System which was put into operation 9 years ago became a revolutionary step in the history of online payment and settlements in India. BBPS offers a secure, easy-to-control one-stop payment solution which can be used to pay all kinds of bills from anywhere in India. In order to achieve this, National Payment Corporation of India, owner of BBPS, brought all service providers such as banks, agent institutions and payment systems under a single roof.
Now with the recent announcement by RBI, area of operation of BBPS would be expanded outside India. The payments of all kinds of bills would now be processed through a cross-border inward bull payment facility operated under BBPS. There is not much information available regarding the transaction procedures for NRIs.
Currently, if an NRI wants to pay bills for their family members in India, they should send the money to an Indian bank account. The money transferred to the Indian bank account can then be utilised to pay the bills. Another is a conventional way in which a person can directly go to the office of the billings and make the payment. The process of transferring money from a foreign bank account to an Indian account to make bill payments were hectic for senior citizens.
Now, with the introduction of BBPS for inward settlements of bills, the procedure of sending money to an Indian account can be completely avoided, and bill payments can be made directly from a foreign account of NRIs.
Services and Extra Charges under the new scheme
With very limited information regarding the new scheme, experts opine that BBPS for NRIs would not be limited to making utility payments but also for payment of fees for education, local government taxes and even insurance-related payments.
There is also no information regarding whether there will be many extra charges applied for transactions between banks of NRIs and Indian services.
The move has been lauded by experts and players in the online payments industry. More and more foreign banks and currency exchanges would have to be roped in, in order to ensure that the transaction is smoother and happening without many delays.
One of the benchmark feature of using BBPS for resident Indians is the speedy, safe and secure transaction which use an SMS system to inform the customer about all transactions.