The government on Monday declined to further extend RBI's October 15 deadline for data localization by global payment solution companies and in its wake it is highly likely that your VISA and Mastercard debit and credit cards may not work now on.

These global digital payment giants have asked for more time to adhere to the RBI's guidelines pertaining to 'data localisation'. In accordance with the RBI guidelines, payment firms including the likes of WhatsApp, Google Pay and others have to store data locally for conducting business in India.

In a media report, WhatsApp spokesperson is quoted as saying, "In response to Indias payments data circular, weve built a system that stores payments-related data locally in India". Currently, there are about 10 lakh people who are testing the service of WhatsApp to send money to each other in a secure and easy manner. "WhatsApp payment is useful for people in their daily lives and we hope to expand the feature to all of India soon, so we can contribute to the countrys financial inclusion goals," the spokesperson added.

Nonetheless it was not made clear as to whether the Facebook-owned company has finally submitted the compliance report as sought by the Reserve Bank of India.

Meanwhile, another payment solutions provider Google Pay has asked for more time from the government to adhere to the RBI's guidelines. Google's Sundar Picchai in his letter address to IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Free flow of data across borders -- with a focus on user privacy and security -- will encourage start-ups to innovate and expand globally and encourage global companies to contribute to Indias digital economy".

Paytm, India's leading payment solutions company, backed RBIs data localization plan as it says that all payments data related to Indian users should be processed and stored locally only and should not be allowed to go out even for the purpose of processing. Furthermore, as suggested the company has adhered to the RBIs guidelines from day one of its operations.

Some 78 digital payments company have to adhere to data localization rules of the RBI and as per people with knowledge on the matter 60-62 companies have complied with the norms and remaining are in the process of compliance.

To put an end to fears around the working of Visa and Mastercard, foreign based payment companies' debit and credit cards, a media report quotes a senior bank official as saying, "There will be no change or disruption in the usage of these cards. Life will go on as usual."

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