How digital rupee will be different from Wallet and UPI payment systems

The proposed digital rupee to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) starting from the next financial year will give a boost to the digital economy. Announcing the introduction of the digital rupee Finance Minister in her Budget speech said that, the introduction of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will lead to a more efficient and cheaper currency management system.

But the question is with digital payments already in place, how will the digital rupee make a difference? Experts say that digital currency will increase the success rates of transactions.

Manoj Dalmia, Founder and Director, Proassetz Exchange said that 

The digital rupee can make a significant difference in terms of

● Faster settlement of securities and payments for financial institutions

● Lesser failure rate, UPI has a failure rate of about 1.2-1.3% which is significant considering large transaction volume

● Commission cost is reduced as in the case of other payment services

Vinshu Gupta, Founder and Director, Nonceblox Blockchain Studio said that digital Rupee will increase the success rates of transactions, in a much lesser time and more efficient way. UPI already is witnessing a decline in the transactional numbers

Digital rupee transactions via UPI can improve efficiency by reducing settlement risks

“UPI payments have a success rate of roughly 98.6%. On a scale of billions of transactions per month, there’s a significant gap that still needs to be filled. Digital rupee transactions via UPI can improve efficiency by reducing settlement risks and the incidence of such transaction failures. A number of central banks across countries are either contemplating or experimenting with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs),” said Sumit Gwalani, Co-Founder, Neobank Fi.

The cost of cross-border transactions can also be significantly reduced with the digital rupee integrated into such a global system of CBDCs, he added.

The digital rupee will complement the digital payment modes and can make a significant impact.

“Available digital payment modes have been able to meet various payment facets in the country. The digital rupee can make a significant impact in a few notable areas like offline payments, programmable/targeted payments (subsidies), cross border payments & remittances,” said Mihir Gandhi, Partner & Payments Transformation Leader, PwC India.

The digital rupee will open up new opportunities for the Fintech sector.