UPI has become hugely popular for retail digital payments in India. It is now proposed to permit all inbound travellers to India to use UPI for their merchant payments (P2M) while they are in the country. To begin with, this facility will be extended to travellers from G-20 countries arriving at select international airports, said Shaktikanta Das, Governor, RBI while announcing the monetary policy on Wednesday.
QCVM Pilot Project
RBI will launch a pilot project on QR code-based Coin Vending Machine (QCVM) in 12 cities. These vending machines will dispense coins against debit to the customer’s account using UPI instead of physical tendering of banknotes. Das explained: “This will enhance the ease of accessibility to coins. Based on the learnings from the pilot, guidelines will be issued to banks to promote the distribution of coins using these machines.”
Expanding the Scope of TReDS
For the benefit of MSMEs, the Reserve Bank introduced a framework in 2014 to facilitate the financing of their trade receivables through Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS). It is now proposed by the RBI to expand the scope of TReDs by providing insurance facility for invoice financing, permitting all entities/institutions undertaking factoring business to participate as financiers in TReDS, and permitting re-discounting of invoices (developing a secondary market in TReDS). These measures are expected to improve the cash flows to MSMEs.
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