In a bid to integrate its retail payments infrastructure with businesses, the National Payments Corporation of India is upgrading its mobile-based Unified Payments Interface, whereby a trader, restaurateur, shopkeeper or SME entrepreneur can send a Goods and Services Tax (GST) invoice or a bill to his customer as an attachment for verification and payment digitally.

Besides, NPCI, which is the umbrella body for retail payments in the country, is planning to incorporate signed intent for QR (quick response) code-based payments to provide an additional layer of security. "So, right now when I (businessman) want to collect money from you (customer), I can’t attach an invoice or a GST bill.

"So, in the UPI version 2.0, I can send an attachment - an invoice, a GST bill or a restaurant bill - which you can verify and then pay," said Dilip Asbe, MD & CEO, NPCI.

NPCI launched the mobile application-based UPI in August 2016.

UPI is bank agnostic and allows users to send and receive money. It supports P2P (Peer-to-Peer) transfers and merchant payments.

UPI 2.0 is seeking to address user convenience and security through introduction of functionalities, such as generating collect payment requests along with invoice/ bill attachment, signed intent QR and UPI mandate. It will also incorporate the P2C (Production to Consumer) payment feature.

"UPI 2.0 is a big change and all the apps will need to be changed. So, we will take at least six months to fully roll out the feature," said Asbe.

Signed intent QR

While it has an innovatively designed QR, NPCI is trying to embed signature feature in it to help build the trust between the payer and the payee and curb fake QR codes.

"Whenever a QR is generated, whether it is dynamic or static, it will have a signature embedded along with that….So, it is a digital sign.

"When we are trying to develop the payment system, we want to secure the QR code more, and this is the first step towards that and will be improvised at a later point," said Asbe.

UPI mandate

NPCI’s UPI mandate service will allow both payer and payee to create mandates or standing instructions for recurring payments through their respective payment service providers/banks.

"We have proposed to add a fully revocable mandate and the RBI is looking at it. In this case, the consumer would be able to see all the mandate given by him. He can add or delete those at any given point in time.

"It is exactly how you add beneficiaries to your accounts and are able to see the mandates you have given," explained Asbe.