MUMBAI, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- India's Central Bank has notified rules for introducing a new pre-paid payment instrument (PPI) for digital transactions up to Rs 10,000 in local currency (140 U.S. dollars) per month that can be issued by banks and parallel banking companies in the country, said a statement by the Central Bank late Tuesday.
"To give impetus to small value digital payments and for enhanced user experience, it has been decided to introduce a new type of semi-closed PPI…. These PPIs shall be used only for purchase of goods and services and not for funds transfer," said the statement by the country's Central Bank Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Money will be loaded or reloaded in the new PPI only from a bank account for making digital payments such as bill payments, merchant payments and would be issued on essential minimum details sourced from the customer.
These new PPIs will boost some of the popular wallets like MobiKwik, Oxigen, Paytm, ItzCash, PhonePe and Ola Money in the country, which currently does not allow customers to send or receive payment from a wallet run by another company, experts said.
The minimum details will include a mobile number verified with One Time Pin (OTP) and a self-declaration of name and unique identification number of any "mandatory document" or "officially valid document" (OVD) listed in the RBI's Know Your Customer (KYC) directive.
