Emergence of Digital Payment Instruments in India As an Alternative to Cash – an Appraisal
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International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology Vol. 29, No. 5s, (2020), pp. 2771-2784 ` Emergence of Digital Payment Instruments in India as an Alternative to Cash – An Appraisal AnujaErandekar and Dr V V Ravi Kumar Symbiosis Institute of Business Management Pune; Symbiosis International (Deemed University) Pune Abstract: India had been primarily a cash-based economy, but with increasing technological advancement and focus on digitization in the recent years, the digital payments industry in India has undergone a transformation .Digital payments provide easier and quicker payment options to the consumers. They also reduce cash related issues like corruption and unaccountability. Internet brought in a massive shift from offline to mobile and online banking channels. Digital payments by way of instruments like NEFT, RTGS and IMPS have a steady increase in terms of volume of transactions. The introduction of National Payments Corporation of India’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has given a new dimension to the payments system. Growth of e-commerce platforms coupled with increased smart phone and internet penetration encouraged customers to use the digital platforms to a greater extent. It is a highly promising industry with convenience and competition shaping its future. This paper aims to study the growth of digital payment instruments which are used widely today namely,NEFT (National Electronic Fund Transfer), RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement), IMPS (Instantaneous payment mode system), Mobile-wallets and UPI (Unified Payments Interface). An attempt has been made to perform a comparative analysis of volume of transactions done using these instruments to record their emergence, growth and trends. This study also attempts to examine the share of these instruments over the years and understand the preference of the people towards the different instruments. Keywords: Digital payments, UPI, RTGS, NEFT, IMPS, M-wallets. I. INTRODUCTION Banking sector has witnessed a revolution in the last two decades. Branch operations have completely changed drastically with emerging digital channels. Lending loans and accepting deposits are not the only services offered by banks today. The entire nature of the servicesprovided by the banks has changed with the introduction of mobile and online banking. Time and place are no longer the constraints for using the services of the bank and the current generation tries not to visit the physical bank branches to the maximum possible extent. A majority of banks have shifted to digital operations and are trying to innovate constantly to gain an edge over the competitors. Digital technology also ideated the concept of mobile wallets and payment banks, apart from innovations in the payment systems. The payments system has undergone a massive transformation and has come a long way since the barter economy being replaced with coins and paper currency, slowly and gradually moving towards a cash-less mode. Internet has revolutionised the way world exists and payments are no exception to it. Digital payment is one such offering of the internet era. Digital payments are basically the payments which are made using digital instruments, in which both the payee and the payer use electronic modes to transfer money through internet. It started with the introduction of internet in late 1990s in India. Later on, with advancing technology different instruments were developed and the user base also increased exponentially. India had been traditionally a cash dominated economy. As per MasterCard Advisors, 2013 [23] over 98% of the economic transactions in India were done in cash whereas the global value is around 85%. The cost of cash to GDP ratio for India is 12.04 percent [1]. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------AnujaErandekar, SIBM, Pune, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune India. Email id: [email protected] 2771 ISSN: 2005-4238 IJAST Copyright ⓒ 2019 SERSC International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology Vol. 29, No. 5s, (2020), pp. 2771-2784 ` Dr V.V. Ravi Kumar, Professor, SIBM, Pune, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), Pune, India. Email id: [email protected] This cost includes the currency operations like minting coins and printing money. The share of real GDP of India in 2014-15 comparable to this cost was 1.7%. Globally too, the usage of cash and banking instruments has saturated and the share of non-cash segments led by digital instruments (by volume and value) has increased. Fig.1: Cost of Cash for different countries Source: [1] As seen from fig. 1, the cost of cash is high for India compared to other countries. This cost can be reduced by encouraging cash-less transactions.With progressive regulatory policies and increased internet and smartphones penetration, India is being pushed towards a cash-less economy. The growth of e-commerce companies, e-wallets and online travel-ticket booking has also been instrumental in the growth of digital payments. The volume for digital transactions in India in August 2018 reached a value of 244.81 crore which ismore than tripled from October 2016 [24]. This emphasizes on the large- scale adoption of digital payment systems in last 3 years. Digital payment instruments A fund transfer via internet is digital payment.As part of the Digital India Programme, which is the flagship programme of the Government of India, digital banking transactions are supported and encouraged. The different digital payment instruments in India [9] for fund transfer between banksare: RTGS – Real Time Gross Settlement NEFT – National Electronic Fund Transfer IMPS – Immediate Mobile Payment Service UPI – Unified Payment Interface BHIM – Bharat Interface for Money USSD – Unstructured Supplementary Services Data, also called NUUP-NationalUnified USSD Platform AEPS – Aadhar Enabled Payment System BBPS – Bharat Bill Payment System NACH – National Automated Clearing House Mobile wallets ISSN: 2005-4238 IJAST 2772 Copyright ⓒ 2019 SERSC International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology Vol. 29, No. 5s, (2020), pp. 2771-2784 ` This study attempts to do a comparative analysis of fiveof the above digital instruments namely, RTGS, NEFT, IMPS, mobile walletsand UPI to examine the growth of these instruments and identify the trends which have shaped the payments industry today. RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) The RTGS network is maintained by the Reserve Bank of India. It was introduced in March 2004 and was the fastest fund transfer mechanism then. The settlement is done on a „real-time‟ basis which means the transaction does not have to wait for processing. RTGS is a large value payment instrument the minimum amount being INR 2,00,000. There is also a fixed timing for weekdays and a specific amount which is levied by individual banks as processing fees. The settlement for RTGS happens as a continuous process on transaction basis throughout the active timings. NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) The Reserve Bank of India introduced NEFT in November, 2005. It facilitates transfer of funds electronically from any branch of a Bank to any corporate or individual account with other bank in India. It does not work on real-time basis but has hourly batches for settlements running. It is easier and faster mode for fund transfer which requires only both the banks to be present on the NEFT network. It does not have any minimum transaction amount capand can be accessed 24X7. The RBI has pushed the banks to waive off the charges on RTGS and NEFT to promote and encourage people to adopt these digital instruments with effect from January 2020. National Payments Corporation of India The RBI in association with the Indian Banks Association (IBA) started NPCL. It was established under the Payments and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. Theaim wasto create an infrastructure for payment-settlement in India which would berobust and dynamicin nature.It has developed innovative products using technology to increase the efficiency of operations in the existing online user base and also widen the scope. It has affiliations with all the major banks in India and a strong network for digital payments setup. IMPS and UPI are two of the revolutionary services by NPCI which has disrupted the way payments are being done in the recent times. IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) IMPS is used for fund transfers across banks on a real-time basis. It is available 24 by 7 for all 365 days irrespective of Sundays and holidays. It was launched in November 2010 and it enabled India to become the global leader in real-time payments with reference tothe retail sector. It makes use of MMID number of the account holder and IFSC code of the participating bank. It is a highly preferred mode for fund transfer by a large population especially youth due to the speed and ease of transactions. It is flexible can be accessed using the internet and mobile banking channels. There are processing charges applicable based on the transaction amount and as applied by the participating banks. It is also subject to applicable GST. Unified Payments Interface (UPI) UPI is a real time payments system which facilitates transactions between different banks on mobile platform. It was launched for public in August 2016 and is said to be the most revolutionary product in the digital payments sector. It can process multiple bank accounts onto the single mobile application and provides