Transactions through mobile wallets declined marginally in November, both in terms of value and volume. According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, around 347.32 million transactions worth ?16,108 crore took place in November, against 368.45 million transactions amounting to ?18,786 crore in October. While the transaction volume is 5.7% lower month-on-month, the transaction value is 14% lower.
Debit and credit card transactions also declined, both in terms of value and volume. The volume of card transactions went down by around 4% to 1362.14 million in November from 1424.97 million in October. The value of these transactions also fell by 5% to Rs 3.84 trillion in November from Rs 4.04 trillion in the previous month. Payments using real-time gross settlement (RTGS) decreased by around 7.6% to 10.97 million in November from 11.86 million in the preceding month.
The decline comes in the backdrop of mobile wallet companies remaining shut out of Aadhaar-based identification to sign up new customers in the past 2-3 months. The government is working to let private entities use Aadhaar for electronic know your customer (e-KYC) after the Supreme Court ruled in September that the unique number can only be used for welfare schemes and delivering state subsidies.
Last week, the Lok Sabha passed a bill to amend three laws to provide legal backing to the government’s decision to allow voluntary linkage of Aadhaar with mobile phone numbers and bank accounts. The bill seeks to amend the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, and the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002. The draft Aadhaar amendment bill puts the onus on offline verification of Aadhaar number holders where the individual will be verified through QR codes without submission of biometric or demographic information to data servers of the Unique Identification Authority of India.
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