Mouth-Watering INR 54,000 crores (USD826.10 crores) can be routed through ePayments!!

          As on date, Mobile operators in India have to adhere to the below TRAI guidelines, with effect from 01/01/2016:-

RELIEF TO CONSUMERS FOR CALL DROPS

16. Measures to provide relief to consumers. - Every originating service provider providing Cellular

Mobile Telephone Service shall, for each call drop within its network,

(a) Credit the account of the calling consumer by one rupee:

Provided that such credit in the account of the calling consumer shall be limited to three dropped calls in a day (00:00:00 hours to 23:59:59 hours);

(b) Provide the calling consumer, through SMS/USSD message, within four hours of the occurrence of call drop, the details of amount credited in his account; and (c) in case of post-paid consumers, provide the details of the credit in the next bill.”

          Negotiations between the Mobile Operators and TRAI have commenced and any amendments if any will be released shortly.

          One of the paragraph in the letter to TRAI states as under: “The annual industry compensation due to dropped calls may range from ₹10,000 crore in case 10 per cent of subscribers claim compensation to ₹54,000 crore in case 50 per cent of subscribers claim the same. This amount would represent up to 37 per cent of the industry’s annualised adjusted gross revenue in case of 50 per cent claims,” .

          As per rough estimates the ratio between Prepaid and PostPaid connections is 80:20.

          This 80:20 ratio translates into a huge opportunity for Safe eTransactions to be popularised.

          As per TRAI guidelines, the monetary compensation for ‘call drop’, has to be credited to the subscribers account i.e SIM.

          To increase the banking penetration in India, the option of routing such credits to the Jan Dhan Bank Accounts/Pre Paid Instruments (eWallets/Mobile Wallets) of the subscribers should be explored.

          7 Benefits of routing the ‘Call Drop’, compensations to Jan Dhan Bank Accounts/Pre Paid Instruments (eWallets/Mobile Wallets) :

01)  Encourage MSB to open bank accounts/eWallets

02) Increase the footprint of banking in country

03) Encourage other government agencies to route transactions to the linked Jan Dhan/eWallets

04) Establish an verifiable audit trial

05) Introduce Safe eBanking channels to MSB

06) A readymade data base for Payment Banks to tap as and when their networks are ready

07) Minimise complaints of non-receipt of compensation  

PMJDY Overdraft process should be fully digitised. No Paperwork please

The detailed guidelines on the overdraft process for PMJDY accounts has been hosted on the PMJDY website.

The players involved in the overdraft process are the Bankers, account holders and government functionaries.

As this is the first time that such a massive overdraft program without any collateral is being rolled out, the process is completely through Paper applications.

There is much scepticism  in the social media that this would be a failure and there would be huge defaults by the PMJDY account holders.

In my belief, we Indians especially the marginalised class are trustworthy and the defaults would be minimum.

Adequate safeguards have been built in the process to ensure that the account holder can be tracked in the banking sector.

 The overdraft facility is available only to Aadhaar number holders. NPCI has built a repository wherein the PMJDY account and the Aadhaar number is linked. Once an overdraft is granted in an account, appropriate flagging is done in NPCI database.

This flagging in the database ensures that no multiple overdrafts are allowed in the same PMJDY account.

A process review after 3 months would be great. The whole process should be digitised, with out the need for paper forms.

Below is the proposed process flow:

01) Any PMJDY account with credits from DBT/DBTL Scheme/scholarship/verifiable sources should be eligible for the overdraft facility.

1. The overdraft facility tobe a) 4 times of the average monthly balance b) INR5000/- whichever is lower.
2. PMJDY holders can approach any branch of the bank where the account is held. No need to approach the base branch only.
3. The OD request to be attested through Aadhaar finger-print verification. No need to fill in any forms or provide any income certificate.
4. The respective bank branch officials to validate the request digitally only. No paperwork is envisaged.
5. Once the bank branch officials authorises the transaction in the CBS (Core Banking System), the overdraft facility to be enabled.
6. System to generate alerts in case there are no credits for 30 days.

PMJDY Overdraft – Preference to women borrowers

            PMJDY accounts are an important tool in our country’s Safe ePayments journey. PMJDY accounts encourage the account holders to move from cash based transactions to electronic based transactions.

            One of smart features of PMJDY accounts is the Overdraft of INR 5000/- for accounts with good behaviour.

            The cooing period for accounts to be eligible for Overdraft facility is 6 months. This means that the first set of accounts will eligible after March 2015.

            In the near future, more clarity is expected on the calculation mode for 6 months i.e A) 6 months from date of account opening or B) 6 months from the date of the first transaction.

The second option is preferred, as this will encourage the PMJDY Account Holders to execute quality transactions in their accounts.

            In an informal chat with presspersons at a PMJDY mega camp organised by Corporation Bank at Vamanjoor village in Mangalore taluk on November 22, 2014, Snehlata Shrivastava, Additional Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Union Ministry of Finance,  said that the overdraft of ₹5,000 will be given to head of the family, preferably women, under the scheme.

This is because women have the habit of saving and prudent in their spending, she said.

Link 1, Link 2