10 Initiatives – Digital Collaboration – W.E.F 1st Jan’21

1. Cheque payments:-

In order to keep track of bank fraud, the Reserve Bank of India has agreed to implement a “positive pay system” for cheque payments. In this system, there may be a requirement of re-confirmation of main information for payments in surplus of Rs 50,000. This rule of a positive pay system will come into existence on 1 January 2021. A positive pay system service can be used by the account holders of their choice. Banks may consider making it mandatory to verify with sums of Rs 5 lakh and higher.

2. Contactless card transactions limit:-

From 1 January, the RBI announced that it would raise the limits from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 for contactless card transactions and e-mandates for regularly occurring transactions through cards and UPI transactions. RBI’s change is to improve digital payment. This will maintain a safe and secure manner, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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3. Car prices:-

Maruti Suzuki India and Mahindra and Mahindra will hike vehicle prices from 1 January to deal with the effects of rising input costs.

4 . WhatsApp to stop Working on Select Phones:- 

Popular Messaging Service WhatsApp will pull support from those platforms from January 1. WhatsApp page has mentioned the operating systems that it supports and suggests using the following devices: Android running OS 4.0.3 and newer; iPhone running iOS 9 and newer; and phones running KaiOS 2.5.1 newer, including JioPhone and JioPhone 2.

5. Landline to Mobile phone calls:-

You will have to add the prefix ‘0’ to make calls from landlines to mobile phones in the country. The Telecom Department ordered telcos to operate on the necessary infrastructure by 1 January in order to introduce the new system effectively. This move would build enough numbering space for telecom services.

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6. FASTag for all four-wheelers:-  

The Union Ministry of Road and Highway Transport made FASTag mandatory for all four-wheel vehicles as of 1 January 2021, through a notification. FASTag will be mandatory for four-wheelers of class M and N sold before 1 December 2017. The Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, were also amended to the same. The notice to this effect was released on 6 November 2020.

7. UPI Payment:-

From 1 January 2021, users will have to pay extra fees when making transactions with Amazon Pay, Google Pay, and Phone Pay. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will impose an additional charge on UPI Payment Service (UPI Payment) with a third-party app starting on 1 January. NPCI applied a 30 percent limit on third-party applications starting in from new year. Paytm is also going to have to pay this charge.

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8. Google Pay web app:-

Google Pay is all set to destroy a user to user payment service on its web app and introduce an automatic money transfer fee from January. Till now, customers have been able to handle payments and transfer money through the smartphone app or pay.google.com. According to Google’s latest notification, the web app site will no longer function as of January 2021.

9. LPG prices:-

On the first day of each month, oil marketing companies revise LPG rates on the basis of crude prices in global markets.

10. GST- Registered small business:-

Businesses with a turnover of up to Rs 5 crores would require to file only 4 GST sales returns, or GSTR-3B, instead of 12 (now) from January, as per PTI. This move would have an effect on 94 lakh taxpayers or around 92% of the overall GST tax base. From now onwards small taxpayers would be filing only eight returns (four GSTR-3B and four GSTR-1 returns) yearly.

Wef 1.1.21, avail only ITC in GSTR-2B plus 5 percent instead of 10 percent earlier. Amendment of Rule 36(4) vide Notice 94/2020CT of 22.12.20.

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Digital Transactions – Way of Life, Safe & Secure!

The Reserve Bank of India has released a certain set rules for payment aggregators and payment gateways to make digital payments safer for users. RBI Guidelines on the regulation of payment aggregators and payment gateways is aimed to reduce the risk of digital payment fraud and to keep users financial data safe.

The guidelines says that payment aggregators, such as Razorpay, CC Avenue, etc., would now have to avoid offering users the option of using ATM PIN to validate / complete online transactions. Payment over Rs 2000 users would only be allowed to use OTP for authentication purposes. Thus, ATM PIN of a individual would not be accessible online to the aggregator or payment gateway (or even the hacker) and thus would be safer.

Here are few measures took by RBI to keep your Digital life safer
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Verification via ATM PIN for online transactions >2k- Mandatory & Not Optional

Payment aggregators can not request ATM PIN for online payment authentication, as per RBI notification,. Currently, some payment aggregators give the customer the option of using their ATM PIN to authenticate online payments. “All digital payments above Rs 2,000 will have to be authenticated on a one-time password (OTP) basis. However, according to RBI guidelines, the authentication of payments below Rs 2,000 through OTP is optional. The decision is taken to ensure that your ATM PIN is not available to anyone and that your card is safe.”

Refunds shall be made to original source of payment

RBI has also demanded payment aggregators to transfer the refund (made due to the  transaction cancellations) back to the customer’s account from which the initial payment was made.

Now, some e-commerce firms are automatically transfer refunds to the customer’s  ewallet (created on the company’s own platform) and not to the bank account , credit card etc. from which the original payment was done. User’s convenience is looked in as this amount can only be used for purchases on that site of e-commerce and nowhere else.

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Background check of merchants

RBI has asked payment aggregators to perform background checks of merchants.

The notification says, “Payment aggregators shall conduct merchants background check to ensure that these merchants have no malafide intent to deceive customers, do not sell fake / counterfeit / prohibited products, etc“. The website of the merchant shall state clearly the terms and conditions of the service and the time-line for processing returns and refunds.

 RBI is attempting to minimize the chances of fraud taking place in the name of reputed websites by asking payment aggregators to ensure that money debiting from the customer’s account is actually credited to the merchant’s account. In addition, customers need to informed during the time of payment that how long it will take to get the money back in case of a refund. This is to ensure that customer has clarity when to expect money in their account.

Online banking
Customer Grievance & Dispute Resolution

Payment aggregators will have to appoint a nodal officer to deal with customer complaints and grievances. Payment aggregators shall set up a formal, publicly disclosed customer grievance redress and dispute management framework, including the appointment of a nodal officer to deal with customer complaints / complaints and an escalating matrix. The complaint facility shall be clearly and easily accessible if it is made available on the website / mobile.

Further, Payment Aggregators shall have a dispute resolution mechanism binding on all participants, which shall include a transaction life cycle, a detailed explanation of the types of disputes, a process for dealing with them, compliance, responsibilities of all parties, documentation, reason codes, procedure for dealing with complaints, turn-around time for each stage, etc.

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