On August 2, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will launch the digital payment option e-RUPI. According to a statement from the PMO, the government intends to advance the electronic voucher concept with a focus on good governance.
Along with being a cashless and contactless instrument for digital payment, e-RUPI is a QR code or SMS string-based e-Voucher that is delivered to the beneficiaries’ mobile phones. – Users of this one-time payment mechanism will be able to redeem the voucher at the service provider without using a card, digital payments app, or internet banking access.
e-RUPI was developed in partnership with the Department of Financial Services, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and the National Health Authority on the National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) UPI platform.
e-RUPI establishes a digital link between service sponsors and beneficiaries and service providers, obviating the need for a physical interface.
Additionally, the payment mechanism ensures that the service provider is paid only after the transaction is complete.
Because e-RUPI is prepaid, it ensures prompt payment to service providers without the participation of a middleman, according to a PMO statement.
According to the PMO, e-RUPI is intended at ensuring the delivery of welfare benefits is leak-proof. Additionally, the payment mechanism can be used to deliver services under schemes that provide drugs and nutritional support to mothers and children under Mother and Child Welfare schemes, tuberculosis eradication programmes, drugs and diagnostics under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, and fertiliser subsidies, among others.
Additionally, the business sector can use these digital vouchers to support employee welfare and corporate social responsibility initiatives.
Bhoi Smrutirekha Dharanidhar