Nowadays carrying money around physically has become so outdated. People go around with various credit/debit cards which serves the needful. The next big thing- digitalized and centralized payment systems. Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) provides a platform for unified payment system across the nation. The platform intends to build an inter-operable service through a network of agents, enabling multiple payment modes along with instant generation of receipts of payments. It would connect the utility services like water companies, DTH and telecom with a plan of expanding and covering school fee, university fee, municipality taxes, mutual funds, insurance premiums on one end and all payments service providers on the other.
So why should one use BBPS? What are it’s benefits?
The biggest advantage to customers is that the bill can be paid anywhere and anytime. There would be retail points for bill payments across the country who would be able to accept all kinds of bills payments made through credit cards, debit cards, mobile wallets, net banking.
The BBPS outlets would include banks, ATMs, business correspondents, kiosks etc. and payments would be made securely through the NPCI network with instant receipts getting generated. Along with this, utility service providers would be able to get payments instantly, they would not need to maintain bill collection centres by themselves, value added services can be added by the operators, bills can be generated electronically and disbursal can also be electronic. Along with these, the BBPS platform would have fraud monitoring and risk mitigation systems in place in order to ensure smooth online transactions.
Also, start repaying your loans on time and be prudent with your bill payments since it is going to be a transparent system that would reward individuals who are paying their financial liabilities on time. Banks would be able to see the newcomers paying their dues timely and the possibility of default would be relatively low as compared with one who is not able to pay his bills on time. Such product innovations will create a win-win situation for both customers and the banks.
As a part of the Digital India initiative, NPCI is planning to make bill payments digital across the country. In 2013, RBI had estimated that around 3,080 crore bills were generated amounting to Rs 6,20,000 crore in the top 20 cities. This is expected to rise to Rs 9,30,000 crore by 2019, and BBPS will be one big leap.