Spice Digital seventh non-bank entity to operate under Bharat Bill Payment System

Spice Digital Ltd (SDL), a subsidiary of Spice Mobility Ltd, has received an in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate under the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS).

Spice Digital is one of the seven non-bank entities that got approval for the licence. The others are Oxigen, PayU India, Paytm, Euronet, TechProcess and BillDesk. A total of 62 non-bank entities had applied for the licence.

"We are quite pleased to be a part of the elite selected group of seven non-banking companies chosen by RBI to operate under BBPS. Once BBPS will go live, customers no longer have to visit individual billing companies' websites or physical outlets to pay bills," said, Saket Agarwal, CEO, Spice Digital, in a statement.

The BBPS is a centralised bill payment system that will allow users to use a single website or outlet to pay all monthly or repetitive bills such as mobile phone and electricity.

The central bank has worked on a tiered structure to allow customers to use a single bill payment platform. The platform will have two entities including Bharat Bill Payment Central Unit (BBPCU) and Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU).

In 2014, RBI had authorised the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to act as a BBPCU for this project.

Recently, Beijing Digital Telecom Co Ltd agreed to acquire a stake in the online retail arm of Spice Group, saholic.com.

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