On August 02, 2021, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi virtually launched a prepaid electronic voucher-based digital payment solution e-RUPI to strengthen the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and the financial inclusion of unbanked citizens.
- e-RUPI, the ‘person and purpose-specific’ one-time cashless and contactless digital payment vouchers was developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on its UPI (Unified Payments Interface) platform, in association with the Department of Financial Services (DFS), National Health Authority (NHA), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), and partner banks.
The process under e-RUPI:
i.When the government/organization intends to provide financial support, they could share the e-RUPI e-Voucher/coupon in the form of SMS-string or QR code (instead of Money) to the beneficiaries’ mobile for a specific purpose (health, education, subsidies, etc).
ii.The beneficiaries need to show the e-voucher (in mobile) to the welfare service provider (i.e. the merchants that accept e-RUPI) to redeem the voucher and complete the transaction.
- As the vouchers will be created for specific purposes they cannot be transferred or cashed out and there is no need to print out the voucher.
- The vouchers will be redeemed by that beneficiary individual only.
iii.As the required amount of the voucher will be prepaid, the service provider will be paid immediately after the completion of the transaction; it enables end-to-end digital transactions without any physical intermediary.
iv.Issuing Entity: The e-RUPI service, which is powered by NPCI’s UPI, was on boarded into 11 banks (both private and public) as an issuing entity.
Benefits under e-RUPI:
i.Under e-RUPI, there is no need to use a card, digital payments app, bank account, internet banking access, and other traditional payment modes to complete the transaction.
ii.It will enable the leak-proof delivery of government welfare subsidies and ensure the money allocated is used for that specific need for which the amount was given.
iv.Safe and Secure: It provides privacy, as the beneficiary doesn’t need to share personal details while redemption.
v.Now the government will deliver services under Mother and Child welfare schemes, TB (Tuberculosis) eradication programmes, Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana, fertilizer subsidies, etc.
vi.Initially, the e-RUPI vouchers was made available for health services, it will gradually cover other welfare schemes of the govt, the govt also plans to allow the corporate sector to leverage it.
Note – The government has saved around Rs 1 lakh 78 thousand crores via DBT and JAM (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile) which connect Aadhaar and mobile.
Recent Related News:
On May 24, 2021, The NPCI, has on boarded PayCore, Turkey’s global payment solutions company as one of the certified partners for ‘RuPaySoftPOS’ to drive cashless payments across the country.
In collaboration with the NPCI, ICICI (Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India) Bank has launched a facility for linking a UPI ID with its digital wallet, ‘Pockets’ and became the 1st one in the industry to link e-wallet with UPI Network.
About National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI):
Establishment – 2008
Headquarters – Mumbai, Maharashtra
MD & CEO -DilipAsbe
