National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said that it has introduced RuPay Contactless (offline) feature, which also provides reloadable wallets within RuPay Card for day-to-day transit payments. It has also introduced a RuPay Contactless (offline) feature for retail payments on a pilot basis. These additional features will augment the overall transaction experience for the RuPay cardholders and revolutionise the overall card payment ecosystem, according to a statement released by NPCI.
This RuPay card comes with a reloadable wallet feature where customers can store money to ensure quick and seamless transactions without any irregularities even if they witness poor connectivity at the POS machines. The RuPay NCMC (National Common Mobility Card) offline wallet can be used to make ticket payments in transit, including metros, bus tickets, cab fares, etc enabling automatic quick cashless payments, thereby, reducing the wait time, traffic congestion and in turn the transit time, the statement notified.
These transactions are faster than a regular card transaction and work as a queue buster.
Additionally, with RBI's approval for the pilot on retail offline transactions, the offline wallet facility is extended to retail stores (as a part of the pilot). The lack of internet connectivity or low speed of internet, especially in remote areas, stores located in basements, etc. is usually a major impediment in conducting digital transactions.
Against this backdrop, providing an option of offline payments is expected to further the adoption of digital payments.
This facility would be a boost for merchants as it reduces physical payments' time to “tap and go” mode and its easy acceptance infrastructure facilities smoothen payments in areas of poor network coverage, the statement asserted.
“We are delighted to unveil the new RuPay Contactless (offline) feature which is aimed at transforming the transaction experience for customers by deploying enhanced NFC technology and innovative card payment solutions. We are confident that with the advent of the stellar RuPay contactless (offline) feature, the acceptance infrastructure for RuPay will increase exponentially and will result in the rapid onboarding on both merchants and consumers in various geographies across the nation. With the recent announcement to increase the transaction limit on contactless payments, customers are set to witness an all-new level of security, convenience and safety,” said Nalin Bansal, Head — RuPay and NFS, NPCI.
“We, at NPCI believe that the RuPay Contactless (offline) feature will strengthen the digital payments ecosystem by furthering financial inclusion and help realise the dream of a less-cash economy,” he added.
This unique feature will benefit the customers immensely by opening up new avenues of acceptability and creating a greater penetration of RuPay's network in the country, the statement said.
