Payments

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Pension is a basic entitlement and its payment cannot be denied: HC

Pension is a basic entitlement and retired employees cannot be deprived of this payment, which is a very source of livelihood for them, the Bombay High Court has said, rapping the Maharashtra government for withholding the dues of a man for more than two years after his retirement. A division bench of Justices G S Kulkarni and Jitendra Jain on November 21 said such a state of affairs was totally unconscionable. The HC was hearing a petition filed by one Jayram More, who used to work as a 'hamal' (coolie) with the Savitribai Phule Pune University since 1983, seeking a direction to the Maharashtra government to release his pension amount. The high court noted that More had rendered a meritorious and unblemished service but still on untenable and technical grounds for a period of two years from his retirement (May 2021), he was not paid pension. More in his plea claimed that the pension was not being paid despite submission of all necessary documents by the University to the concerned

In India, Russia calls for 'extra efforts' to overcome payment hurdles

Aiming at strengthening economic ties with India, Russia's envoy to India on Monday said payment problems hinder trade and there is a need for "extra efforts" from banks and exporters to overcome this hurdle. Denis Alipov, Russian Ambassador to India, said that the Vostro trade settlement mechanism (Rupee payment) did not work well. "Some extra efforts are needed by companies and banks to explore the conditions," he said. He, however, did not elaborate on what he meant by "extra efforts". In response to a question on the sidelines of an MCCI-organised interactive session, he emphasised the necessity for additional efforts from Indian banks and exporters to resolve this issue. Though he admitted that resolving the payment method would require much fine-tuning, Alipov said banks are willing to cooperate. On the defence deal for the advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defence system S-400, Alipov acknowledged delays but said supplies are on but in a new schedule. Sanctions l

CCAvenue.ae launches mobile-based QR Code payment solution in the UAE

This is the company's first foray into the offline payment space in the UAE market

L-G directs mandatory geo-tagging of all civil work projects of Delhi govt

Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena has directed mandatory geo-tagging of all civil work-related projects of Delhi government departments to curb corruption, cost escalation and delay in execution, according to a note of the Raj Niwas. It will also be mandatory for contractors to upload pictures of project sites before and after completion on the IT department's portal for evaluation. Payments will be made to them following verification by authorities, it said. "The LG (lieutenant governor) has made it mandatory to geo-tag each and every project on the IT department portal to curb corruption, cost escalation and inordinate delays in execution of civil works by various Delhi government departments," the note issued on Monday said. The directions were issued by the LG while approving a proposal of the Directorate of Vigilance, it said. Besides geo-tagging, he also directed heads of the departments to ensure uploading of progress report with photographs of projects and works, mandatorily on

NPCI launches voice-enabled transactions feature on UPI payments platform

The NPCI on Wednesday launched a slew of new payment options on popular payments platform UPI, including conversational transactions. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das announced the launch of the products by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) at the ongoing Global Fintech Festival here. One of the products is Hello! UPI that will enable users to make voice-enabled UPI payments via apps, telecom calls, and IoT devices in Hindi and English. It will soon be available in several other regional languages also. NPCI said the credit line on UPI facility will enable customers access pre-sanctioned credit from banks via UPI. Separately, users will be able to send and receive money offline using the other product, LITE X product. Further, the UPI Tap & Pay facility, in addition to the conventional scan-and-pay method, will allow customers to simply tap Near Field Communication- (NFC-) enabled QR codes at merchant locations to complete their payments. The .

Cashfree Payments rebrands Zecpe, a one-click checkout platform, as Ecom360

Ecom360 aims to address core problems of D2C businesses by improving checkout and payment processes

GeM's provision of penal interest on delayed payments to start from July

A functionality enabling public procurement portal GeM to impose penal interest for making delayed payments to vendors by government ministries and departments will be operational in July, a senior official said on Tuesday. In 2020, the government decided to levy a 1 per cent penalty on government departments and agencies for delayed payments to vendors selling goods on the GeM platform. The provision would be effective from July, a senior official said on Tuesday. Government e-Market (GeM) CEO P K Singh said that there are issues pertaining to getting timely payments from buyers, particularly state governments. In case of the central government, the payments by enlarge happen in 10-15 days, he said, adding there are problems in case of state governments. "We are working on that and let me tell you that by the end of July, this functionality for imposing the penal interest will be up and running...Interests will be charged from October," Singh said here at CII MSME Growth Summit.

India, Russia explore using RuPay and Mir cards for easy payments

India and Russia will explore the possibility of accepting RuPay and Mir cards in each other's country for hassle-free payments amid sanctions imposed by the West on Moscow. In the recent high level Internal Governmental Commission meeting on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC), it was discussed and agreed to explore the opportunity of allowing acceptance of these cards, sources said. The mutual acceptance of RuPay (India) and Mir cards (Russia) will help Indian and Russian citizens to make hassle-free payments in Indian rupees and Russian ruble in their respective countries, sources said. The meeting, co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Russia Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, also agreed to explore the possibility of interaction of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of National Payment Corporation of India and the Faster Payments System (FPS) of the Bank of Russia. Besides, it was also agreed to look at adopting t

PNB makes Positive Pay System must for cheques worth more than Rs 5 lakh

In a move to safeguard customers from fraudulent payment of cheques, state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has made the Positive Pay System (PPS) compulsory for cheque payments worth Rs 5 lakh and above. This will come into effect from April 5, 2023, PNB said in a statement. Earlier, the mandatory submission of cheque details in PPS was set at Rs 10 lakh and above. The PPS is a system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which requires customers to reconfirm essential details (account number, cheque number, cheque alpha code, issue date, amount, and beneficiary name) when issuing cheques of a certain amount, it said. This adds an extra layer of security against any potential risk while processing such cheques, it said. Customers can use the PPS facility by providing the cheque details through Branch office, Online Banking for individuals and businesses, Mobile Banking (PNB ONE), or SMS Banking, it said, adding, the details to be submitted one working da

Travellers to India from G20 nations can use UPI for merchant payments: RBI

UPI transactions touched a record high of 8.03 billion transactions in January, adding up to Rs 12.98 trillion

Borrower can't claim extension of time under OTS as matter of right: SC

The Supreme Court has said a borrower cannot claim further extension of time as a matter of right for making payment under the one-time settlement (OTS) scheme. The apex court said the borrower has to establish any right in its favour to claim the extension as a matter of right. A bench of Justices M R Shah and Krishna Murari quashed the Punjab and Haryana High Court judgement delivered in March, which had granted further six weeks to a borrower, a company, to make the payment of balance amount with interest to the State Bank of India according to the sanctioned letter of OTS . The top court observed that rescheduling the payment under the OTS scheme and granting extension of time would tantamount to "rewriting the contract", which is not permissible while exercising the powers under Article 226 of the Constitution. The modification of the contract can be done only by mutual consent under section 62 of the Indian Contract Act, it said. Article 226 of the Constitution deals with th

In an era of free money transfers, here's how India's banks will remain indispensable

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Extending purview: RBI to regulate offline payment aggregators, too

Pinelabs, MSwipe, Ezetap, FSS, Hitachi payments, Worldline, etc. are some offline payment aggregators

NPCI sets Oct 31 as deadline to activate offline payments on RuPay cards

The move will breathe life into the RBI's January 3 framework which sought to give a fillip to offline payments and lead to the activation of the One Nation, One Card for on-the-go payments

Players ready for migration as card-on-file tokenisation deadline nears

Tokenisation is the replacement of an actual or clear card number with an alternative code called the "token"

Tokenisation to Add more Muscle to Existing Digital Payments System by Making it safer, faster and more seamless than ever

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Share of dollar, euro in Indian trade payments up 30% since 1990s: IMF data

Research shows effect of dollar fluctuations on bilateral trade; RBI mechanism to pay in Indian rupees may help settle trade with Russia and Sri Lanka, remove risks of dealing in greenback

Payments Infrastructure Development Fund corpus touches Rs 811 crore

The contribution to the PIDF is made by the RBI, authorised card networks and card issuing banks. the RBI had made an initial contribution of Rs 250 crores to the PIDF

JetBlue sweetens offer for Spirit, boosts breakup fee, adds cash payment

The revised offer increases JetBlue's reverse breakup fee by $150 million and provides for about $164 million payable as a cash dividend