NEW DELHI: A million point of sale (PoS) machines will be imported by India between January and March 2017 in order to increase digital payments, a panel of chief ministers on digital payments has decided. The committee said the modified version of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), linked to the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) along with Aadhaar Pay will be launched soon. For Aadhaar Pay, a merchant only needs a smartphone which is biometrically authenticated while consumers need to know the bank name with the account number along with his/her Aadhaar number to facilitate payments. “Till now, a few banks like IDFC, Syndicate and SBI have implemented Aadhaar Pay but our objective is to extend it to other banks as well,” said Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh after a meeting of the committee on Wednesday.
The meeting also discussed giving incentives to people who shift from cash to digital mode of payments and issues of cyber security. The committee also discussed extending these facilities to regional rural banks (RRBs) and cooperative banks. Apart from the E-PoS machines, the committee also considered importing 1.8 lakh M-PoS devices for the same months next year. “Our objective is to look at the various constraints with the existing infrastructure in place,” Naidu added. Internet connectivity and cyber security are the major problem areas that should be addressed. NITI Aayog along with Nasscom and telecom operators are also creating a helpline number 14444 so that all customer-related grievances regarding digital payments can be attended.
