NEW DELHI: In a move benefiting senior citizens, the RBI on Friday has allowed non-resident Indians to pay electricity, water bills and other utility bills in India directly via the Bharat bill payment system.
“To facilitate Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) undertake utility, education and other bill payments on behalf of their families in India, it is proposed to enable BBPS to accept cross-border inward payments. This will also benefit payment of bills of any biller onboarded on the BBPS platform in an interoperable manner. Necessary instructions will be issued shortly,” the RBI said in a statement today.
BBPS is a payment system conceptualized system by RBI and driven by the NPCI. It is a one-stop ecosystem for payment of all bills providing an interoperable and accessible “Anytime Anywhere” Bill payment service to all customers across India with certainty, reliability and safety of transactions.
Over 20,000 billers have been onboarded on the system and more than eight crore transactions are processed on a monthly basis.
BBPS is currently accessible only for residents in India.
The RBI’s proposal to enable Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) for offering cross-border inward payments is a welcome initiative. This interoperable platform, which already processes over eight crore transactions on a monthly basis, will transform the bill payment experience for Indians living abroad and will be highly beneficial for the family members of the NRIs, especially the senior citizens staying in India. NRIs will now be able to enjoy various offerings of BBPS such as a reliable bill payment experience, centralized customer grievances redress mechanism, and uniform customer convenience fee, while paying utility bills, education-related payments and other cross-border transactions,
Source Times of India