The Reserve Bank of India vide its notification dated 5th January 2020 has notified the operationalization of the payment infrastructure development fund (PIDF) scheme, which is intended to subsidize deployment of payment acceptance infrastructure in tier-3 to tier-6 centres, with a special focus on the north-eastern states of the country.
RBI has prescribed details of contribution to the fund and sought to incentivise the usage of payment devices.
PIDF will be operational for a period of three years from January 01, 2021 and may be extended for two more years depending upon the progress. PIDF presently has a corpus of ₹ 345 crore.
The objective of PIDF is to increase the number of acceptance devices multi-fold in the country. The Scheme is expected to benefit the acquiring banks / non-banks and merchants by lowering overall acceptance infrastructure cost.
