The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has now permitted prepaid mobile recharges through the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS).
RBI stated, “With consistent growth in different biller categories and to facilitate mobile prepaid customers with more options to recharge, it has been decided to permit ‘mobile prepaid recharges’ as a biller category in BBPS, on a voluntary basis. This will be implemented on or before August 31, 2021.”
The central bank further added, “This directive is issued under Section 10 (2) read with Section 18 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (Act 51 of 2007).”
Know about BBPS
- BBPS is operated by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) that offers interoperable and accessible bill payment service to consumers via digital (bank channels) as well as through a network of agents and bank branches.
- It offers all recurring payments like electricity, telecom, DTH, Gas, water bills, insurance, loan repayments, education fees, fastag recharge, municipal taxes, housing society, subscription fees etc. at one single window.
- The payment modes options at BBPS are cash, cards (credit, debit and prepaid), IMPS, UPI, AEPS, Internet Banking & UPI, wallets.
- BBPS, started in 2014 as an interoperable platform for repetitive bill payments, which covered bills of five categories -- Direct to Home (DTH), electricity, gas, telecom and water.
