NPCI rolls out offline transactions, reloadable wallet on RuPay

In an effort to boost payments in remote areas, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Wednesday introduced a new RuPay contactless feature, which will help customers complete transactions despite poor or absent network connectivity. 

The new RuPay card also comes with a reloadable wallet feature to allow customers to store money. 

Called as the RuPay National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) offline wallet, the card can be utilised for ticket payments for everyday tasks such as metros, bus tickets and cab fares. The contactless or offline card for retail payments has been launched on a pilot basis. 

The features are primarily aimed at cutting down traffic congestion and to work as a queue buster, NPCI said.

 “We are confident that with the advent of the RuPay contactless (offline) feature, the acceptance infrastructure for RuPay will increase exponentially and will result in the rapid on-boarding across the nation,” said Nalin Bansal, head of RuPay and NFS, NPCI.

Bansal added that the solution will work through an enhanced near field communication technology which would allow for more financial inclusion in the country.

NPCI is the umbrella body for all retail payments and settlement systems in India and launched the domestic card RuPay in 2012 apart from developing other products such as united payments interface (UPI).

In the past, the body has reduced the merchant discount rate (MDR) on cards at the point of sale in an effort to incentivise digital transactions and use of RuPay debit cards.