New Delhi, January 23: Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based digital payments platform, PhonePe now allows its consumers to dispense cash from local shop merchants. The platform has launched a pilot in Delhi-NCR region, touted as PhonePe ATM, that allows its customers to withdraw upto Rs 1,000 from a merchant.
The UPI-based feature, PhonePe ATM is based on P2P transaction. It can be found within ‘Stores’ tab within the app that locates nearby shops offering this facility. Once the consumers reach the nearest shop, they just need to click on the ‘Withdraw’ button and transfer the required amount to the merchant. Once the amount is transferred, the merchant will give the customer cash equal to the amount transferred.
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According to company’s spokesperson, more than 75,000 PhonePe merchant partners within Delhi-NCR region have already signed up with the feature, and there will not be any charges for customers or merchants to avail the service. It plans to scale the facility to other regions with the success of the pilot. PhonePe maintains that it complies with all the extant regulatory guidelines to offer the facility that acts as a third-party app provider (TPAP) in the UPI ecosystem operated by the NPCI.
“We have about 75,000 merchants who have opted in to provide this service, which is at least more than 10 times of actual ATMs. We are giving multiple reasons to consumers and merchant partners to use our platform other than payments. Enabling merchants to open ATM services to our consumer base to increase footfall in their store is one of them,” the spokesperson said.
