e-RUPI voucher issuance surged in February; redemption in slow lane

While issuance of e-RUPI vouchers by banks surged in February, driven primarily by state-owned Indian Bank and State Bank of India, redemptions of such vouchers were quite muted, data released by the National Payments Corporation of India show.

 

According to the data, Indian Bank generated 507,550 e-RUPI vouchers in February, followed by State Bank of India with 126,810 — both significantly surpassing their January figures of 110,625 and 106,084, respectively.

 

However, only a fraction of the cumulative issued e-RUPI vouchers were redeemed, the data show. For instance, redemptions stood at 8.4 per cent for Indian Bank and 6.5 per cent for State Bank of India in February.

 

In January, the redemption volume for Indian Bank and State Bank of India stood at 20,203 and 67,221, respectively.

 

An e-RUPI voucher is an end-to-end digital solution to sponsor benefits and services to beneficiaries. It is a purpose- and person-specific digital voucher that can be redeemed at any merchant centre enabled for e-RUPI acceptance.

 

Evolving use cases may include incentives targeted at specific end-use areas such as scholarships, medical bills, purchase of fertilisers, sponsorships, and subsidies. It is only allowed to be redeemed for peer-to-merchant (P2M) purposes.

 

The cap on the amount for e-RUPI vouchers is Rs 100,000 per voucher for government schemes, whereas the limit for private entities is capped at Rs 10,000 per voucher.