You can soon make your payments through your mobile phone rather than using a credit card or debit card. The Reserve Bank of India, in its annual policy statement on Tuesday, said it was in the process of formulating the guidelines for a payment system using mobile phones. RBI is in discussions with banks, service providers and industry bodies to develop the payment system. The bank said the draft guidelines would be placed on its website by June 15.
The reach of mobile phones in India has been increasing rapidly. There are about 250 million mobile phone connections in the country.
This is much larger than the number of credit card holders at around 10 million. Therefore, use of the mobile for payments is being considered for quite some time. ``The rapid expansion of this mode of communication has thrown up a new delivery channel for banks,'' RBI said in the policy statement.
Many countries have adopted the mobile phone as a mode of delivery to spread the reach of the banking facility to remote parts.
Mobiles To Access Bank Accounts
As RBI prepares guidelines for payment through mobile phones, a statement said: ``This channel facilitates small value payments to merchants, utility service providers and the like and money transfer at a low cost.''
A banker said a person can access bank account through mobile. He can transfer money to another person's account. Later, the mobile phone could also be used as a charge card. In this you can load a certain amount of money in your chip and make payments. TNN
