The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on November 16 announced the update on payments infrastructure development fund (PIDF).
The PIDF Scheme was operationalised by RBI in January, 2021, it subsidises deployment of points of sale (PoS) infrastructure (physical and digital modes) in tier-3 to tier-6 centres and north eastern states of the country. Further, from August 26, 2021, beneficiaries of PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi Scheme) in tier-1 and tier-2 centres have also been covered.
Acquiring institutions (banks and non-banks), registered under the PIDF Scheme, commit region-wise deployment targets, submit deployment statistics and claim subsidy for devices which fulfil the prescribed criteria, RBI said in a release.
Contribution to the PIDF is made by the Reserve Bank, authorised card networks and card issuing banks.
| Source | Amount (in ₹ crore) |
| Reserve Bank of India | 250.00 |
| Authorised Card Networks | 153.72 |
| Card Issuing Banks | 210.17 |
| Total | 613.89 |
The number of payment acceptance devices deployed under the PIDF Scheme as at end-September 2021 is –
| Location | Physical Devices | Digital Devices |
| Tier 3 & 4 Centres | 98,504 | 20,46,075 |
| Tier 5 & 6 Centres | 84,968 | 30,47,750 |
| North-eastern States | 18,449 | 2,42,145 |
| Tier 1 & 2 Centres (PM SVANidhi Scheme) | 44,021 | 2,00,708 |
| Total | 2,45,942 | 55,36,678 |
Physical devices include PoS, mPoS (mobile PoS), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), etc. Digital devices include inter-operable QR code-based payments such as UPI QR, Bharat QR, etc.
