India’s fourth largest private sector bank launched a first-of-its-kind joint initiative with the Government of Maharashtra under e-PDS state programme to onboard Fair Price Shops as Business Correspondent Agents. With this initiative, the Government of Maharashtra aims to extend banking and value-added services to the last mile while empowering fair price (ration) shop owners to enhance their livelihood through additional revenue opportunities.
Under the programme, YES BANK will onboard ~40% of all Fair Price Shops in Maharashtra, spanning 12 districts like Palghar, Thane, Pune, Kolhapur, Latur etc. benefitting more than 20,000+ ration shop owners and over 70 lakh citizens. The Bank will engage Fair Price Shops to provide banking services such as small-value cash deposits into any Bank Account including Domestic Remittances and withdrawal from any Bank Account via Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS). All Fair Price Shops will also be able to collect digital payments through Aadhaar enabled payments (AadhaarPay) for ration as well as sell Value-Added Services (VAS) like bill payments via Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), DTH recharges, mobile recharges, bus booking, hotel bookings etc. Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) is a bank-led model that allows online interoperable financial inclusion transactions at any point of sale through the business correspondent of any bank using Aadhaar authentication.
Commenting on the development Girish Bapat, Cabinet Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection, Food & Drugs Administration, Parliamentary Affairs in Government of Maharashtra said, “The pioneering ePDS digital initiative has helped us eliminate more than 10 lakh bogus ration cards in Maharashtra and made the inventory management for government and shop owners fully digital. ePDS initiative will also significantly boost the livelihood of shop owners by giving them additional revenue through the various services they can now offer to the citizens. At the same time, the citizens will now have the convenience of availing cash withdrawal and other banking services at their next door fair price shop. YES BANK has been an instrumental partner in implementing this key digital initiative in such a short span of time. Together with them, we will soon expand this initiative across the state of Maharashtra.”
The joint initiative will help Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) users who have a card but do not necessarily have access to POS machines or ATMs, to easily access funds from their bank accounts to buy daily essentials with a simple biometric authentication.
Speaking on the launch, Ritesh Pai, Chief Digital Officer at YES BANK, said “Establishing its leadership position in digital payments yet again, YES BANK is proud to partner Government of Maharashtra to further the state’s financial inclusion programme while helping augment income of Fair Price Shop owners. The Bank remains committed to improving last mile inclusion and translating financial access into enhanced convenience & usage for smoother delivery of Government to Citizen (G2C) services through simple digital solutions.”
