New Delhi. Customers will soon be able to avail the facility of automatic refilling of Fastag, National Common Mobility Card (NCMC), UPI Lite when the balance goes below the prescribed limit. The Reserve Bank of India has proposed to provide automatic refill facility in these products under the ‘e-mandate’ framework.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, while giving information about the decision of the Monetary Policy Committee on Friday, said that the trend of ‘e-mandate’ for payments to be made at fixed periods is increasing. In view of this, it has been proposed to start the facility of adding money automatically in Fastag, NCMC etc.
Under the ‘e-Mandate’ system, banks are allowed to deduct a fixed amount from the bank account of the concerned customer for payment.
Das said that under ‘e-mandate’, money is automatically deducted from the customer’s account at the fixed time for fixed period payments like daily, weekly, monthly etc. Now such facilities and platforms are being added in it, in which payment is made when needed. In such a situation, the time and amount of payment is not fixed.
He said, “Under the e-mandate system, it is proposed to start an automatic facility for such payments. When the balance in Fastag or NCMC falls below the limit set by the customer, the money will be automatically credited to it from the concerned customer.” This will facilitate travel/traffic related payments. ‘E-mandate’ is a digital payment service launched by RBI for customers. It was launched on January 10, 2020.
According to the RBI statement, the current e-mandate framework requires intimation of withdrawal of money from the customer’s account at least 24 hours in advance. It is proposed to exempt this requirement for payments made from the customer’s account for automatic payments in Fastag, NCMC, etc. under the e-mandate framework. RBI has also proposed to bring UPI Lite under the ambit of the ‘e-mandate’ framework. The statement said, the UPI Lite facility currently allows a customer to keep up to Rs 2,000 in his UPI Lite wallet and make payments of up to Rs 500 from the wallet.
Das said, “To enable customers to use UPI Lite seamlessly and based on the feedback received from various parties, it is proposed to bring UPI Lite under the ambit of ‘e-mandate’ framework by introducing ‘auto-replenishment’ facility to add money to the UPI Lite wallet by the customer, if the balance falls below the limit set by him.” According to RBI, since the money remains with the customer (the amount goes from his account to the wallet), it is proposed to eliminate the need for additional authentication or information before withdrawing money from the account. The relevant guidelines regarding the above proposal will be issued soon.