In order to promote the use of card payments across the country, the RBI in its 4th monetary policy review meet today announced the set up of an exclusive 'Acceptance Development Fund' that will be deployed to maintain the infrastructure as required for accepting card payments such as swipe machines etc. The announcement has been made in the RBI's Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies on October 4, 2019.

The facility shall be focused on tier Vi and III cities and once the infrastructure expands, payment via cards will be rendered easy. The framework for the same shall be operationalised by December.

And as and when the infrastructure becomes readily available, there will be a boost to the digital payments method.

In its vision document, the RBI said, 'Payment and Settlement Systems in India: Vision - 2019-2021', released in May 2019, has said that - Increased deployment of card acceptance infrastructure across the country including at smaller centres with a substantial portion of the infrastructure taking care of processing contactless card payments. Given the current growth trend it is expected to have 5 mn active PoS by end 2021; digital PoS (QR code) is also expected to increase substantially; and the total card acceptance infrastructure will be upscaled to six times present levels by end 2021. This is expected to support aim of cash-lite economy and also shift Cash on Delivery (CoD) transactions to digital modes for e-commerce.

Also, it added, "Domestic cards have stabilised well and the potential for their large-scale use is high. Efforts will be made to increase the scope, coverage and usage of domestic cards, including the RuPay card scheme which was launched in March 2012. Collaborative effort will be initiated among NPCI, banks and the Government to widen and deepen the scope / usage of RuPay cards to enhance its brand value internationally."

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