Now, NRIs Can Directly Pay Bills In India

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is going to make digital payments more accessible for the non-resident Indians (NRIs). The RBI has been working on Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) which will enable accepting cross-border in-bound bill payments.

Usually NRIs transfer money to Indian bank accounts (NRE) and make payments on behalf of their family members. This is a lot of time taking process and with new security initiatives like One-Time Password (OTP), the payments have become tougher. Understanding the critical nature involved, the RBI said it has been working on BBPS.

RBI’s move was welcomed by bank and legal experts. “This is RBI’s commitment to standardizing and further optimizing the digital payments ecosystem in India. This will enhance ease and reduce delayed payments, thereby benefiting the economic ecosystem,” opined Sudhir Sharma, a legal expert.

BBPS will have various utilities such as water bills, electricity bills or any utility, through a system, an interface that will be provided by exchange houses or banks. The payment options BBPS is going to have facilitated are as payment via cards (credit or debit), NEFT, UPI or wallets. Owned and operated by NPCI Bharat BillPay Ltd, BBPS will streamline the overall system and encourage consumers to make payments via digital channels rather than by visiting branches.

The RBI is yet to come up with BBPS norms and in a statement, the central bank added that necessary instructions will be announced shortly.