RBI proposes to include beneficiaries of PM Vishwakarma Scheme under Payments Infrastructure Development Fund Scheme

The Reserve Bank has proposed to include the beneficiaries of @RBI under the Payments Infrastructure Development Fund - PIDF Scheme.

In a statement regarding various developmental and regulatory policy measures issued from Mumbai yesterday, RBI said the decision is expected to give a fillip to its efforts towards promoting digital transactions at the grassroots level.

The Reserve Bank has further proposed to extend the PIDF Scheme by a further period of two years, i.e., up to December 31, 2025. It may be recalled that the scheme was operationalized in January 2021 for a period of three years with an aim to incentivize the deployment of payment acceptance



infrastructure such as physical Point of Sale (PoS), Quick Response (QR) codes in tier-3 to tier-6 centres, northeastern states and Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. RBI has informed that over 2.66 crore new touchpoints have been deployed under the Scheme till August 2023.

Based on industry feedback, RBI also proposes to encourage the deployment of emerging modes of payment acceptance, such as soundbox devices and Aadhaar-enabled biometric devices to augment the deployment of payment acceptance infrastructure in the targeted geographies.

The amendments will be notified shortly.