Visa and Bill Desk expand Bharat QR services to over 300 million consumers

Visa and Bill Desk announced successful enablement of fifty large service providers for Bharat QR payments acceptance in  a months time, thus extending the digital payment facility to potentially over 300 million consumers.

Some key merchants enabled include Tata AIG, ACT Broadband, Reliance Energy, Gujarat Gas, MTNL, Aircel, Tata Power, Pune Municipal Corporation, and Calcutta Electricity Supply spanning services such as utilities, internet, phone, DTH, insurance, and government services.

T.R. Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia, Visa, said, “The core idea that binds technology and payments is simplicity and convenience, and QR code is a great example. Having pioneered QR technology as low cost payments solution for open loop networks, and having worked with the government and the industry in developing BharatQR, Visa’s endeavour is to grow the acceptance network for BharatQR in the country and make digital payments accessible to all. Through our collaboration with BillDesk, we hope to fast-track the transition to digital payments and make less-cash society a reality for India.”

Ajay Kaushal, Co-founder,BillDesk said, “BillDesk is delighted to engage with Visa to promote BharatQR. This is a simple yet powerful solution with great potential to shift consumers and merchants from cash to digital payments for everyday spends.  It provides the speed, security and convenience that cash payments cannot match.  Merchant interest in and demand for BharatQR is growing for it is simpler, faster, and more reliable ways to accept digital payments with BharatQR. We will continue to collaborate with Visa to enable online merchants for BharatQR acceptance and simplify digital payments for consumers.”

Bharat QR is a secure, network-agnostic,and device less interface that enables customers to make payments using their bank apps on smartphones.  BharatQR simplifies digital payments by eliminating the need for divulging card details at the point of sale.  For example, to use Bharat QR to pay their electricity bills, customers will simply need to log in to their bank’s app, and scan the QR code displayed on their electricity bill, enabling instant payment. Alternately, customers may enter their unique Customer IDs online and generate a QR code that can be scanned using their bank app.  To date, 30 banks together serving over 90% of India’s population have enabled their banking apps and nearly 400,000 merchants for BharatQR payments.

India will lead the world in smartphone adoption with a net addition of 350 million connections in 2016-20, according to a GSMA report. With the common standards, coupled with the low-cost acceptance method, Bharat QR has the potential to accelerate financial inclusion in India.