NCPI, Reliance Jio announce First UPI Autopay for Telecom Users

In a first today, the National Payments Commission of India, and Reliance Jio announced UPI Autopay for Jio users. This will allow Jio users to keep up with recharges and payments.

Jio, NPCI Enable UPI Autopay

The companies said that Jio customers can set instructions to schedule payments on the MyJio app using the UPI Autopay. The feature will work for all the tariffs and will recharge automatically once the validity of the previous plan ends.

After the NPCI launched its e-mandate system, Reliance Jio has become the first telco to benefit from the same. The UPI Autopay, therefore, has become a good integration of the same feature.

With this, all the users of Reliance Jio will no longer need to remember their date of recharge once the validity ends. What's more, after a user approves the e-mandate, the feature will recharge the user's mobile on the due date. Furthermore, up to recharges worth Rs. 5,000, the user does not even have to punch in the UPI PIN for the recharge. Also, the users have the flexibility to create, modify as well as remove the e-mandate.

Kunal Kalawatia, Chief of Products, NPCI said, "we believe our collaboration will change the way Jio customers experience a renewal of their mobile tariff plans".

Kalawatia added, "with UPI Autopay, it’s our constant endeavor at NPCI to provide an extra layer of comfort and convenience to all the customers for their recurring spending and payments. We believe that this integration will drive a favorable customer sentiment about seamless and automated recurring payments.”

Kiran Thomas, Director, Reliance Jio said, “the combination of Jio’s superior prepaid and postpaid plans and UPI AUTOPAY will now be available to every Jio user. Jio users will no longer need to remember their recharge renewal date or bill payment date and perform manual payments".

Thomas also said that the move will allow for an always-on service experience for the users.

The Meteoric Rise of UPI

For NPCI, UPI has become the star of the show, and the numbers show. Over the last two years, both the number of transactions and the transaction volume have been growing at a steady pace of 6-7%. Therefore, even if we project a similar growth, in January,  transactions should cross the 5-billion-mark.

India has already launched on UPI2.0; it has been launched in August 2018. It has updated the security of transactions, and the whole blockchain, while introducing new features. One of the key new features is the one-time mandate, which allows users to schedule a payment in advance.

Along with this, features such as invoice verification have greatly improved the user experience. Over the years, NCPI has been working with technology and banking partners to further simplify and enhance the whole UPI experience, to ensure more and more inclusion.

However, the project that has been 12 years in the making, has finally started to deliver, and there is no doubt that UPI will carry India towards a cashless future.