Bharat Bill Payment System

♤ Reserve Bank of India has proposed setting up of a national integrated platform for bill payment: Bharat Bill Payment System, a service through which consumers can pay their bills from anytime, anywhere.

♤ Within this ambitious plan, nation-wide service providers would be integrated into one single platform of billing.

The Problem

Currently, more than 3080 crore bills are generated from India’s top 20 cities, amounting to roughly Rs 600,000 crore annually. The problem is that the bill payment system is very scattered and de-centralized. Cash and cheques are still top modes of payment, and fearing that their payment will not materialize, majority of consumers visit the service provider directly to make the payment.

The consumer is left to figure out himself how to make bill payments for municipality taxes, phone usage and water connection among hundreds of other bill payments.

The Solution

♤ The whole concept of Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) is based on providing customers one unified location where he can pay all of his bills easily. As per the plan by RBI, BBPS will “offer interoperable and accessible bill payment service to customers through a network of agents, enabling multiple payment modes, and providing instant confirmation of payment.”

♤ The whole model of BBPS has been divided into two parts: a) the entity which will operate BBPS, which will be a ‘standard setting body’ and b) Bharat Bill Payment Operating Units (BBPOUs), which would be authorized operational unit set up in urban and rural areas to make the process easier.

♤ RBI has made it clear that any entity wishing to operate as BBPS for consumers should be a ‘section 25 company under the Companies Act 1956’ and having net worth of atleast Rs 100 crore.

Participants