"We (Centre) see digital payments as the public good. We feel that people should be able to access it freely so that the digitalization of the Indian economy becomes attractive. We can also achieve a level of transparency through digitalization," the Finance Minister said while addressing an event here.
She added, "We (Centre) still believe that it is to the right time to make digital payments chargeable. We are pushing every citizen toward digital transactions and platforms which can enable great access. The RBI's recommendation is to a working paper and lets the working paper where it is."
Her statement came against the backdrop of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking feedback from the people on the various charges proposed in the payments system, including the possibility of imposing tiered charges on transactions done through the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
The RBI discussion paper said, UPI as a fund transfer system is like IMPS, and therefore, it could be argued that the charges in UPI need to be similar to charges in IMPS for fund transfer transactions.
However, last week, the Central government announced that it will not levy any charges on UPI payments.
"UPI is a digital public good with immense convenience for the public and productivity gains for the economy. There is no consideration in Govt to levy any charges for UPI services. The concerns of the service providers for cost recovery have to be met through other means," Sitharaman earlier tweeted.
Also, in India, the RTGS and NEFT payment systems are owned and operated by RBI. Systems like IMPS, RuPay, UPI, etc, are owned and operated by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
The government has mandated a zero-charge framework for UPI transactions with effect from January 1, 2020. This means that charges in UPI are nil for users and merchants alike.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hailed the UPI transactions crossing 6 billion in July.
(With ANI inputs)
