CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government will soon be putting up digital payment acceptance infrastructure in all its offices to enable cashless transactions, according to official sources. The move by the State government comes after the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information technology (MeitY) urged the State government to ensure that digital payment acceptance infrastructure is put in place at every physical point of contact of the citizen with State.
Sources indicated that the MeitY has come out with standard operating procedure on integrating the online payment systems to accept payment using BHIM or UPI, a platform that empowers multiple mobile apps by participating banks and third party apps to provide seamless fund transfer and merchant payment.
BHIM or UPI will be integrated into online payment systems of organisations so that customers receive bill payment request in his BHIM or UPI-enabled apps by entering mobile number or virtual payment address (VPA) while making online payment.
The government billing offices will also have printing of Bharat QR Code or BHIM QR Code, an interoperable payment acceptance solution launched by the National Payment Corporation of India that supports Visa, MasterCard and RuPay cards and BHIM and UPI, on all utility bills and invoices, sources indicated. It is learnt that the government offices have been asked to work out mechanism enabling payment through BHIM Aadhaar POS machines, particularly in rural or semi-urban areas.
The State government offices have also been asked to offer discount on digital payment. This comes after the MeitY has recently issued orders subsidising merchant discount rate on all debit cards or BHIM or UPI transactions upto Rs 2,000. It is learnt that with this initiative, the offices can do away its own collection points that entail a huge set-up and maintenance cost.
