The deployment of point-of-sale (PoS) terminals — electronic devices used to process card payments at retail locations — doubled to 3 million at the end of November 2017 from 1.5 million in November 2016, when the Centre demonetised ₹1,000 and ₹500 notes.

Both the number and value of PoS transactions increased considerably during the period, according to RBI data.

The data is indication that people have migrated to cashless transactions at a rapid pace, said industry observers.

The number of PoS transactions increased by 17 per cent to 271 million in November 2017 from 231 million in November 2016. Similarly, the total value of PoS transactions increased 14 per cent to ₹36,519 crore (₹32,174 crore), according to the data.

However, the average daily number of PoS transactions dropped to three against the earlier five. This was due to the doubling of PoS terminals, said sources.

V Balasubramanian, President - Merchant & Terminal Business, FSS Ltd, a Chennai-based provider of payments technology and transaction processing service, said PoS transactions are expected to witness growth in the future as well, especially with targeted government initiatives like drop in the merchant discount rate for smaller merchants.

With growing acceptance of digital payments among the semi-urban and rural populace, PoS transactions will increase further, he added.

Banks face a huge challenge in enlisting merchants, which is also leading to de-installation of PoS terminals, he told BusinessLine .

FSS, an end-to-end payments provider, plans to launch FSSPaY to facilitate instant payment acceptance across multiple banks for merchants.

Products/services like FSSPaY will encourage small merchants to adopt digital payments and will solve the challenge of enrolling the merchants for the banks, Balasubramanian said. Digital payments acceptance is high now in urban areas, and “we expect it to percolate to semi-urban and rural areas soon,” he added.

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