RBI launces new bill payment platform Bharat Bill Payment System

MUMBAI: In coming months, the ability to pay bills at one's convenience will be available to most Indians irrespective of whether they are digitally connected or not. This has been made possible by the launch of the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) -a billing platform conceived by the RBI.

Over the weekend, the RBI authorised the first round of 33 BBPS operating units. These include wallet companies like Oxigen and Paytm and aggregators like Bill Desk and Techprocess, along with 26 banks such as SBI, ICICI, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak and Ratnakar Bank.

AP Hota, MD & CEO, NPCI, said, “The payments system was already interoperable, the billing information system was not. Now with the BBPS, the billing information system gets interoperable.“

Oxigen plans to open up its two lakh retail outlets to bill payments as they have the basic requirement of a networked point-of-sale device.

"We can provide both cash and wallet-based bill payment services," said Pramod Saxena, founder and chairman of Oxigen Services India.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm, said, "We will support the mission by removing any convenience fee."