Digital payment bound to pick up with new technology: FM Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today expressed hope that digital payment is going to pick up momentum with more advanced technology coming into the market.

A lot of people went in for digitisation in terms of mode of payment more out of compulsion rather than finding it a more convenient method to transact, but that compulsion created a habit for many, he said after the launch of a mobile app for digital payments developed by Google for India.

"We reached a peak figure (after the demonetisation), then it marginally slipped and is now bound to pick up again," he said.

Built on the government-supported Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Tez allows users, free of charge, to make small or big payments straight from their bank accounts, Google said.

The app was built for India, working on the vast majority of the country's smartphones, and is available in English and seven Indian languages (Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu).

Tez, a Hindi word which means fast, works in partnership with four Banks -- Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and State Bank of India (SBI) -- to facilitate the processing of payments across over 50 UPI-enabled banks.

"Now, the time has come with application as simple as this that what started as compulsion becomes a matter of convenience and eventually a matter of spending habit as far as Indian people are concerned," the finance minister noted.

The app is available now for download on Google Play (Android) and the App Store (iOS).