NPCI sets 5.5 mn PoS machine installation target by Sep

The National Payments Corporation (NPCI) is targeting to nearly treble the number of point of sale (PoS) machines at merchant outlets to 5.5 million over the next six months from 2.4 million now.
"We are aiming to increase the number of PoS machines to 5.5 million by end-September. Apart from the traditional machines, newer kinds will also be introduced," NPCI managing director & chief executive AP Hota said here today.
Under this, NPCI is planning to add 1 million each of Aadhaar and Bharat QR-based and conventional PoSes, he said.
The Aadhaar-based PoS will be launched on April 14, under which adding a single dongle to a smartphone will turn the mobile phone into a PoS, he said.

Hota said banks are all set to achieve the post- demonetisation target of installing 1 million new machines by March 31. As many as 9.7 lakh machines have already been installed, while the remaining 30,000 will be done in the next two-three days.
A bulk of the new machines have been installed by a few big banks, Hota said, adding a network of 25,000 PoS machines is necessary for feasibility of the initiative.

A rapid spike in PoS machines will help government achieve its target of more than doubling digital transactions to 25 billion next year, from the present 10 billion, he said.

The department of electronics and IT has set a special department to achieve this 25 billion target in a mission mode and NPCI is also a part of it, Hota said.
He, however, rued that awareness on financial literacy is a missing factor.
New target is also based on bank-wise segregation of targets, he said.
When pointed out to data showing a slowdown in digital transactions and a surge in cash supply after the note ban, Hota acknowledged that stickiness is an issue.
He said government is formulating a referral cash incentive scheme wherein people will be showered with incentives to go digital.

Meanwhile, NPCI today launched a new variant of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) for merchant payments.
Starting from today, the facility, launched in association with Axis Bank, will be available at 200 Reliance Retail stores and will be rolled out across the chain's stores and other merchants.
Under the new UPI, transaction will get processed on a special QR code which comes on the PoS machine that's used by the customer to complete the payment.
Hota said merchant discount rate will be applicable for such transactions, but added the same will go down under the revised norms to be issued by the RBI soon.