The digital payments platform Mswipe had launched the digital payment initiative called ‘e-RUPI’ on Wednesday. The company went live with the application for all 6.75 lakh of its POS and 1.1 million QR merchants. Mswipe hopes to use the e-RUPI live on its platform and enable merchants in India by easing their access in accepting digital payments. The company itself has been an enabler in the past in the MSME sector according to the press release. This new feature hopes to bring a more streamlined approach to digital transactions by way of the e-RUPI.
What Exactly is e-RUPI?
The e-RUPI is essentially an electronic voucher-based digital payments system. It is delivered via a QR code or SMS string-based voucher. What makes this so unique is that it does not require the merchants to have a card, net banking or even an app. It also maintains an extra layer of security as it is a prepaid function.
Another noteworthy quality is that the vouchers can be specific to a particular person or for a certain purpose, such as purchasing items at a merchant or vendor. The e-RUPI solution was first rolled out in August of this year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an attempt to provide a digital payment solution between the sponsors of services and their beneficiaries. The digital payment solution was developed in a collaborative effort between the Department of Financial Services and the National Health Authority. The payment solution is powered by the
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
How Does e-RUPI on Mswipe Work?
Now that
Mswipe has onboarded this function onto its platform, merchants can use the ‘UPI Voucher’ feature on the Mswipe Merchant App when they are trying to accept the pre-paid e-RUPI based payments from their customers. These payments can be accepted on the merchant’s POS terminals or by registering on the Mswipe Merchant App. The advantage of using this app and the e-RUPI is that customers can experience a somewhat ‘hands-free’ lifestyle. There will be a reduced dependency on carrying a card, accessing online banking or other forms of digital payments, said the company in a press release. The company attributed these claims to the fact that customers will be able to receive said vouchers via SMS on their Aadhaar registered mobile number.
The e-vouchers can also be used for other government welfare programmes like vaccination drives, nutrition, healthcare and even fertilizer subsidies to name a few according to the press release. It also helps people in the corporate sector as it can aid companies reimburse their employees for other expenses such as
COVID inoculation, travel allowances, business expenses and corporate social responsibility initiatives, said Mswipe in the release.
Ankit Bhatnagar, the Head of Product at Mswipe said, “e-RUPI built on the UPI platform is a step in the direction of expanding the digital payments infrastructure in the country and in empowering businesses to accept payments in the most suitable form from their customers. This democratizes digital payments and at the same time has a tremendous potential to limit misuse of subsidies that are meant for government welfare schemes and under corporate support programmes for their employees. Providing e-RUPI is a step towards our commitment in empowering our merchants to adopt all kinds of digital acceptance methods to improve customer experience and also boost their revenue.”
The end goal of e-RUPI in this case is to connect the sponsors of the services to the beneficiaries as well as service providers through the integrated digital interface, claimed the release. It was also touted as being the way forward in strengthening Direct Benefit Transfer while simultaneously offering transparency according to the company.
