HYDERABAD: After numerous T-Wallet users complained about the heavy transaction charges levied on them, the Telangana IT department has reduced the charges by bringing in a new payment gateway player to encourage more people to use the app.
Soon after its launch, the review section of the app at Google Playstore was flooded with user complaints about transaction charges. Unlike commercial wallets, the T-Wallet charged users for transferring money from bank to wallet. The app was launched to facilitate digital payments to various government services. “The T-Wallet is compared with commercial wallets that are heavily funded and can absorb the transaction costs,” said G T Venkateshwar Rao, Managing Director, Telangana State Technology Services (TSTS) and MeeSeva. People felt the payment gateway charges of T Wallet was slightly on the higher side, we have brought in a new payment gateway player, he added.
Following user complaints, the department has tied up with a new payment gateway.
“It will be the cheapest in the industry as it is government backed. We were at one point thinking if we should absorb the costs now we have burdened the cost to the payment gateway, we now feel we too can absorb the costs,” said Rao. The official, however, dodged the question on how much T-wallet has cost the exchequer.
The app was developed and is run by Transaction Analysts, a Bangalore-based private firm. The company was one of the two firms shortlisted by the National Institute of Smart Governance to develop T-Wallet. The firm so far has received a ‘lump some amount’ and gets paid monthly to run the platform. However, the IT department is unwilling to reveal the costs involved.
As for user concerns, the official assured that the T-Wallet is in line with Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) guidelines.
“Nobody will be storing your Aadhaar number. Aadhaar is only used for authenticatio. The Aadhaar numbers goes to the UIDAI database for verification and comes back, that is all there is to it. It is only a medium of data transfer,” It is as per UIDAI guidelines,” assured Rao.