RBI Doubles balance limit on digital wallets to Rs. 20,000 per month

In order to meet the transactional needs of the public through digital means, the Reserve Bank has introduced additional measures by way of special dispensation for small merchants and enhancement in limits for semi-closed Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs).

A special dispensation has now been enabled for small merchants whereby PPIs issuers can issue PPIs to such merchants. While balance in such PPIs cannot exceed ₹ 20,000/- at any point of time, the merchants can transfer funds from such PPIs to their own linked bank accounts upto ₹ 50,000/- per month, without any limit per transaction. Merchants only need to provide a self-declaration in respect of their status and details of their bank account.

The limit of semi-closed PPIs issued with minimum details has been enhanced to ₹ 20,000/- from the existing ₹ 10,000/-. The total value of reloads during any given month has also been enhanced to ₹ 20,000/-. Extant instructions for other categories of PPIs remain unchanged. Full KYC PPIs with balance upto ₹ 1,00,000/- can continue to be made available by authorised PPI issuers.

The above measures will be effective from November 21, 2016 till December 30, 2016, subject to review.The earlier PPI guidelines did not specifically provide for opening of PPIs for such merchants as a separate category and the limit for semi-closed PPIs issued with minimum details was ₹ 10,000/-.
RBI said in a circular, A special dispensation has now been enabled for small merchants whereby PPIs issuers can issue PPIs to such merchants. While balance in such PPIs cannot exceed ₹ 20,000/- at any point of time, the merchants can transfer funds from such PPIs to their own linked bank accounts upto ₹ 50,000/- per month, without any limit per transaction. Merchants only need to provide a self-declaration in respect of their status and details of their bank account.
Govind Rajan – CEO FreeCharge said in a statement,

FreeCharge welcomes RBI’s decision to increase the limits on wallets to Rs 20,000 for users and to Rs 50,000 for merchant bank transfers. This doubling of limits will have an immensely beneficial impact for users and small merchants. Given the quantum jump in digital wallets usage in recent days, this increase in limits makes it easier for both users and merchants to shift more of their cash transactions to digital wallets.

Upasana Taku, Co-founder, MobiKwik, RBI ‘s steps will accelerate the adoption of mobile wallets in the country and ease the challenges being faced by the common man and local shopkeepers due to cash crunch. We have heard the challenges regarding wallet limit, first hand from our users, especially sellers, and some of those would exhaust their 10000 limit within a week and then struggle with the woes of dealing in cash in these times.

Source

Stay connected with us for more Tech News Facebook Twitter  Instagram YouTube Android App
Subscribe by Email