The Indian National Payments Corporation (NPCI) received a final nod from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to function as the Bharat Central Bill Payment Unit (BBPCU) and operate the Bharat Bill Payment System . The final authorization from RBI comes almost a year after NPCI launched the BBPS pilot project to facilitate the payment of utility bills. The pilot started in August 2016 with eight BBPS operating units that had received RBI approval in principle. Certified units include 10 private sector banks, 3 public sector banks (Baroda Bank, Union Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank), five cooperative banks and six cooperative banks Non-bank billing aggregators.
About Bharat Invoice Payment System (BBPS) BBPS is an integrated bill payment system that provides interoperable bill payment service accessible to customers through an agent network, allowing multiple payment modes and providing a confirmation Instant payment. The BBPS initiative aims to give a boost to digital payments, as it is a big step forward in formalizing the bill payment system in the country. Under the BBPS framework, a customer will be able to pay several bills like electricity, telephone, water, gas and DTH television in one place – physical or electronic – and receive an instant confirmation once payment is made. Almost 45 crore bills are allowed under BBPS. Payments through BBPS can be made using cash, transfer checks and electronic modes. Account aggregators and banks, which will function as operating units, will conduct these transactions for customers. At present most of the transactions in BBPS are from electricity bills. It contributes about 180 million invoices per month, of which only 10% is digital.
