Recurring payments via old Paytm Upi handles get 2 months lifeline

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Earlier this month, Paytm wrote to its trader partners and informed them that the NPCI had extended the deadline for the deactivation of its UPI ID by two months. (Bloomberg) Summary All autopay mandates linked to the then @paytm Upi ID handles were extended until October 31. Earlier, NPCI planned to disable all @paytm handles from 1 September. Mumbai: In a relief for users and traders, the National Payments Corp. Whether India (NPCI) extends the deadline to stop all autopay mandates linked to the then @paytm UPI (Unified Payments Interface) ID at two months to October 31, 2025, four people near the development told Mint. The expansion comes after Mint reported on August 14 that scores of auto mandates or transactions for disruption have been set, as the Fintech supervisory body planned to disable all @paytm handles from 1 September. Earlier this month, Paytm wrote to its trader partners and informed them that the NPCI had extended the deadline for the deactivation of its UPI ID by two months. “We want to inform you about an important update of NPCI regarding the existing UPI mandates on the @paytm handle. The validity for mandates in all categories has been expanded to October 31, 2025, after which they will no longer be performed,” read the e -mail, obtained by Mint. About 100,000 customers are still expected to have an auto -or -recurring transactions linked to the then @paytm handles, according to the people. Mint reported earlier that the decision to stop transactions via the @paytm handles was part of a series of measures that took the Reserve Bank of India last year against Paytm Payments Bank, which included the use of the @paytm UPI handle. After this, NPCI instructed to migrate these handles to other banks. However, several old handles remain linked to autopay mandates, which put these planned transactions at risk once the deadline is over. Merchant Payments Alliance of India (Mpai), an association of digital traders, including Netflix, Spotify, Amazon and Policybazaar, had a resolution. “NPCI asks all the merchant partners involved to work with Paytm to facilitate interoperability or migration, but it doesn’t seem to be ready at their end,” said one of the two people quoted earlier, both spoken on the condition of anonymity. Emails sent to NPCI remained unanswered. A spokesman for Paytm said: “We have already informed our partners and users to go to new Paytm Upi handles, so there will be no disruption for them. All parties have expanded their work area to ensure a smooth transition.” However, traders believe that in the absence of a clear road map of Paytm or NPCI until now has no choice but to reach out to customers individually and ask them to migrate or change their UPI handles to continue the repetitive transactions. In the end, it does not solve the problem and was the reason why the expansion was sought in the first place. ‘We ask to find out a more technical solution to the problem, where the handles might be migrated to the back. If the traders have to reach out to customers one by one and create new handles by hand, the issues remain, ‘one of the traders affected by the order told Mint. The earlier problem that clients are skeptical of the shift, given the lack of official communications of NPCI and Paytm, he also keeps, he added. Manual outreach has an impact on traders and the ease of users, said the independent digital bank consultant Parijat Garg. “What is needed here is a kind of stewardship in terms of supervising or prioritizing the comfort of customers.” Of course, one is about traders who lose their business or miss opportunities, but it is also about customer inconvenience. Customer interest should be prioritized here, “he said, adding that it will be aided by insights into whether the inactive clients have reported their hands. While Mpai has sought a public notice from the NPCI or Paytm to secure their traders’ customers, NPCI may be reluctant to do so, as it is an entity -specific problem and is not related to the broader industry. NPCI can also be reluctant to advise traders on which route to take to migrate the handles, and prefer to have them handle the process at their individual discretion, an industry expert said. The traders most affected by this transition are subscription players such as OTT (over-the-top) current platforms and insurance agents who accept mandates for recurring insurance premiums. Paytm reportedly told traders that the delay or lack of a uniform solution was due to the non-preparation of some banks at the back. This is probably due to the requirement that banks will lead all repetitive payments via the Bharat Connect platform of NPCI Bharat Bill Pay. Since not all banks on the platform are on board, it leads to some issues, one of the two people quoted earlier said. ‘It may be that they (regulators) want most of these payments to migrate to Bharat Connect, which in some ways is a regulatory indication to migrate most of this, because it is the right account payments. They may think that it is better to achieve a one -time pain and move all these things, so in the future the process is more seamless and automatic, ‘Garg said. A similar problem arose when NPCI asked TPAPS (third-party application providers) last year to lead all credit card transactions via the Bharat Connect platform. During the transition, several banks such as RBL Bank and some co-branded cards-which were not on the platform on board were non-SAW had a few months failed or delayed credit card payments, as the UPI platforms were unable to settle payments on their behalf or receive payments. Some foreign banks, such as standard chartered, are still not on the Bharat Connect platform and cannot receive credit card payments via third-party platforms. TPAPS is non-banking-denteparty payment programs such as Phoneepe, Bharatpe and Google Pay that offers UPI-linked payment services. Catch all the industry news, bank news and updates on live currency. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #Upi Read Next Story