Bharat Connect

NPCI Bharat BillPay Limited (NBBL) doing business as Bharat Connect, and formerly named Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS)^[1] is an integrated bill payment system in India offering interoperable and accessible bill payment service to customers through a network of agents of registered members as Agent Institutions (AI), enabling multiple payment modes, and providing instant confirmation of payment.^[2]

Bharat Connect

Operating area	India
Founded	2013; 11 years ago (2013)
Owner	NPCI
Website	www.bharat-connect.com

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) functions as the authorized Bharat Bill Payment Central Unit (BBPCU), which will be responsible for setting business standards, rules and procedures for technical and business requirements for all the participants and requirement. NPCI, as the BBPCU, will also undertake clearing and settlement activities related to transactions routed through Bharat Connect. Existing bill aggregators and banks are envisaged to work as Operating Units to provide an interoperable bill payment system, irrespective of which unit has on-boarded a particular biller. Payments may be made through the Bharat Connect using cash, transfer cheques, and electronic modes. Bharat Connect has also been integrated with the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for instant payments through UPI enabled smartphones.^[3]

Background

The Committee headed by RBI Executive Director G. Padmanabhan was set up in 2013 to study the feasibility of implementation of Giro based Payment Systems. It had estimated that over 30,800 million bills amounting to ₹6223 billion are generated each year in the top 20 cities in the country.^[2]

It was felt that an integrated bill payment system is required in the country that could offer interoperable and accessible bill payment services to customers through a network of agents, allow multiple payment modes, and provide instant confirmation of payment. This should also serve as an efficient, cost-effective alternative to the existing systems and enhance consumer confidence and experience.

On 6 August 2022, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed BBPS cross border inward billing facility for Non-resident Indians. NRIs can now directly pay utility bills, education fees, municipal tax and insurance-related payments without the need to send money first to a resident Indian bank account.^[4] The facility became active from 13 September 2022.^[5] On 20 September, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das officially launched Bharat BillPay Cross-Border Bill Payments at Global Fintech Fest 2022.^[6]

At the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2024, Vivek Deep, executive director of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), announced the rebranding of the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) to Bharat Connect.^[1]

Unified Presentment Management System

NPCI on 4 January 2022 launched Unified Presentment Management System (UPMS) for recurring payment. Customers can set up standing instructions for any mode of payment. The payment will be done automatically in terms of auto-debit and bill payment management. UPMS will help in payment of mutual funds, insurance, subscriptions, school fee payments etc.^[7]

Bharat Connect QR

Bharat Connect QR operates on a Scan, Fetch, and Pay model. Using this model, customers can make the bill payments by scanning the QR code, which will fetch the latest bill through the BOU. The customer can then proceed to pay directly within the same app.^[8] Clickpay QR was launched by Google Pay in collaboration with Bharat Billpay at the Global Fintech Fest 2024. With this functionality, customers can pay their bills by just using the Google Pay app to scan a Clickpay QR code. Users don't need to memorize account numbers or customer IDs because the QR code—which billers can generate—automatically retrieves the most recent bill details.^[9]

See also

• India portal
• Banks portal
• Money portal

• India Stack
• Aadhar
• Indian passport
• Immediate Payment Service
• Merchant account
• National Payments Corporation of India
• Permanent account number
• Indian ration card
• RuPay
• Unified Payments Interface

References

1. "RBI executive director announces Bharat Connect as new identity for BBPS at Global Fintech Fest 2024". Financialexpress. 30 August 2024. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
2. "Implementation of Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) - Guidelines". Reserve Bank of India. 28 November 2014. Archived from the original on 6 December 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
3. "NPCI - About Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS)". National Payments Corporation of India. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
4. M, Maulik (6 August 2022). "NRIs will now be able to pay for services in India directly". mint. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
5. "Good News for NRIs: India now accepts cross-border payments". The Economic Times. 13 September 2022. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
6. Chanchal (20 September 2022). "UPI Lite among key digital payment initiatives launched: Here's how it works". mint. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
7. Shetty, Mayur (4 January 2022). "NPCI arm enables recurring payments for services at a click". The Times of India. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
8. "Bharat Connect QR Implementation for New Customer Acquisition on Bharat Connect" (PDF). www.bharat-connect.com. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
9. Chakravarti, Ankita (31 August 2024). "Google announces UPI Circle, UPI Vouchers, and other features for Google Pay: Know what it is and how it works". India Today. Retrieved 2 September 2024.