Mumbai, August 5: Seeking to enable Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to pay bills such as electricity, water and other utilities on behalf of their families, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has proposed to enable Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) to accept cross-border inward bill payments.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said that BBPS has transformed the bill payment experience for users in India and over 20,000 billers are part of the system, and more than 8 crore transactions are processed on a monthly basis.
“It is now proposed to enable BBPS to accept cross-border inward bill payments. This will enable Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to undertake bill payments for utility, education and other such payments on behalf of their families in India. This will greatly benefit the senior citizens in particular,” Das said while announcing the bi-monthly monetary policy.
In line with global trends, the RBI on Friday raised policy repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.40% with immediate effect to contain inflation which has been above its comfort level for the past many months.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) or rate-setting panel also decided to remain focussed on withdrawal of accommodation to ensure that inflation remains within the target going forward while supporting growth.
RBI has retained inflation projection at 6.7% in 2022-23 with Q2 at 7.1%; Q3 at 6.4%; and Q4 at 5.8%, and risks evenly balanced.
Announcing the monetary policy, Governor Das said that successive shocks to the world economy are taking their toll in terms of globalised inflation surges, tightening of financial conditions, sharp appreciation of the US dollar and lower growth across geographies.
“The Indian economy has naturally been impacted by the global economic situation. We have been grappling with the problem of high inflation,” Das said.
With UNI Inputs…
