To increase the digital transactions in several rural areas, the Reserve Bank of India has issued a framework that allows offline payments up to Rs 200 per transaction, to an overall limit of Rs 2,000. This means now the customers will not require internet or telecom connectivity for payments.
Under this, the payments will be carried out face to face using any channel or instrument like cards, wallets, and mobile devices. While this will not require any additional factors, the RBI said. They also stated that transactions are offline but they will receive SMS and/or e-mail on their mobile phones after a time lag.
The framework gave the feedback received from the pilot experiments on offline transactions, which were conducted in different parts of the country from September 2020 to June 2021.
"Offline transactions are expected to give a push to digital transactions in areas with poor or weak internet or telecom connectivity, particularly in semi-urban and rural areas. The new framework is applicable with immediate effect," the RBI said.
The customer will get all protection under the provisions of circulars limiting customer liability. "Offline payments shall be made in proximity (face-to-face) mode only," said the officials, and added that it will not require AFA.
The RBI has asked all the authorised payment system operators (PSOs) and payment system participants (PSPs) acquirers and issuers (banks and non-banks) to ensure action on this instructions.