Rupay debit cards can be used at PoS terminal: NPCI

MUMBAI: With people preferring to use other payment mechanisms like point of sale (PoS) machines following demonetisation, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) today clarified that its RuPay debit cards can be used at such terminals for transactions.

"There is a general perception that RuPay Debit cards can be used only at ATMs. In this regards, we would like to clarify that over 600 banks are issuing RuPay debit card to their customers and it can be used at any shop having a PoS terminal and at major e-commerce portals apart from its use at the ATMs," NPCI Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer AP Hota said in a statement.

There are over 300 million RuPay Debit Cards in circulation and on an average these cards record over 10 lakh transactions on PoS and e-commerce every day, NPCI said.

Hota noted that with most state-run banks waiving off Merchant Discount Rate for RuPay PoS transactions till December 30, it will encourage merchants to accept the card from customers.

There are about 14 lakh PoS terminals and about 2.3 lakh ATMs in the country, and the RBI-promoted NPCI said very soon, all hospitals, railway stations and utility billing counters will have PoS terminals.

On November 8, Modi had announced the decision to demonetise Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes.