NPCI directs apps not to charge Platform fees

The National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI) has asked payment services to stop charging a platform fee for monies made available through the Bharat Bill Payment Platform.

Apps that accept payments through the Bharat Bill Payment System have been instructed to stop charging a platform fee (BBPS).

This is in light of the RBI recently publishing a dialogue paper on domestic payment rates. Additionally, it appears that the government views the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) as a public asset that users are not required to pay for.

In India, PhonePe, which handles a significant portion of UPI transactions, started charging for some mobile recharges and other payments last year. The transfer was presented by the company as a test of customers’ willingness to make small-priced purchases. Paytm also started charging Rs. 1 for bill funds on its site in July.

The NPCI is believed to have written to payment applications in the second week of August and instructed them to stop charging even this little fee. According to representatives of Paytm, the charge was instantly stopped as of this month. According to PhonePe, it is no longer charging for transactions made through the Bharat BillPay platform. However, it claimed that the charges were for services for which it had established direct communication with the biller, bypassing the BBPS. These consist of a few credit card payments and a few mobile phone recharges.

Utilities and other billers, including banks, credit cards, subscription fees, fastag, and municipal charges, are all eligible for anywhere, anytime bill payment with BBPS. Before BBPS, there were a variety of aggregators that put their retailers on one platform and that payment companies would link to.

We have been experimenting with platform fees across several categories for a while. The results are encouraging and show that the vast majority of Indian consumers (98%) are willing to pay a small cost for the convenience that PhonePe provides. Our platform fee trials across all applicable BBPS categories have been put on hold for the time being. We will discuss our experimental results with NPCI/BBPS and then ask for their assistance in standardising modest platform fees, PhonePe said in an email. Inquiries were not immediately answered by the NPCI.