The Reserve Bank on Thursday issued draft guidelines for pre-paid payment instruments to be used in mass-transit systems which will also enable shopping inside the transport hubs. “One area where a large number of small-value cash payments take place relates to mass-transit systems.
Therefore, based on a review, it has been considered necessary to issue additional guidelines for a new category of prepaid payment instruments,” the central bank said. The ‘semi-closed’ prepaid instruments will be issued by the mass-transit operators like the Delhi Metro, and will be regulated under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. Such instruments should help in automated fare collection and may also be used at other merchants who “are allied to or are carried on within the premises of the transit system only,” the draft guidelines said. The responsibility of getting the merchants on board will be of the operator.
Minimum validity for the PPI-MTS (prepaid payment instrument for <g data-gr-id="15">mass-transit</g> system) will be six months. The <g data-gr-id="13">know-your customer</g> (KYC) requirements for issuing the instruments have been left for the issuer to decide.