Bharat BillPay sees 75% growth in transactions in March
1 min read 13 Apr 2018, 07:38 PM ISTTransactions worth Rs2986.15 crore were recorded in March as compared to Rs1125.51crore worth of transactions in March last year
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New Delhi: More than 31.5 million transactions have been recorded on the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) in March, up 75% from 18 million recorded in March last year, said the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Friday.
The value of transactions has gone up by around 165%. Transactions worth Rs2986.15 crore were recorded in March as compared to Rs1125.51crore worth of transactions in March last year.
The total number of Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units (BBPOUs) certified by NPCI now stands at 71. There are 75 billers on board and 21 billers are expected to join soon. As of date, 1.7 million agents have been on-boarded.
As per the framework, a customer can pay several bills such as electricity, telephone, water, gas, and direct-to-home television at a single location—physical or electronic—and receive instant confirmation once the payment is made.
NPCI is also looking to get approvals from the Reserve bank of India (RBI) for other categories of recurring payments such as fee payments, monthly instalments and mutual fund payments which can eventually be offered on the BBPS ecosystem, said A.R.Ramesh, chief project officer, BBPS.
“Instead of using multiple apps or logging in to different websites or even travelling to various collection points, the brand empowers and promises a one-stop destination for payment of all utility bills. Consumers save cost and time instead of travelling to different places or visiting various websites," he said.
According to Ramesh, the objective has been to rapidly enhance the biller base to enable easier bill payment for consumers under one single ecosystem.
Payments through BBPS may be made using cash, transfer cheques and electronic modes. Bill aggregators and banks, which function as operating units, carry out these transactions for the customers.
NPCI received final clearance from RBI to operate as Bharat Bill Payment Central Unit and operate BBPS in July last year. It came almost a year after NPCI launched the BBPS pilot project to make payment of utility bills easier. The pilot started on 31 August 2016 with eight BBPS operating units that had received in-principle approval from RBI.
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