BharatPe’s card-accepting machinewith zero MDR may go live in June

Merchant payment and lending network company BharatPe is working on a card-accepting machine with zero MDR, which is likely to go live by next month.

“BharatSwipe will be our card machine. It will be exclusively available to high transacting merchants on BharatPe QR,” said Ashneer Grover, Co-Founder and CEO, BharatPe, adding that it is currently in the testing phase.

“We should go live with about 15,000 machines within a month’s time,” he told BusinessLine, adding that he expects it to have a big impact on the market.

“If the customer comes and transacts on the QR, the machine will print a receipt and if someone transacts on the machine, the merchant will see the details of QR and card transactions in a single view on the BharatPe app. More importantly, the merchant will have an ability to take the money home without paying any MDR,” he said.

Two new products

Last month, the companyintroduced two new products in its app for merchants – ‘Paisa Bolega’, which provides voice alerts of transactions – and ‘BharatPe Balance’, which reflects the total money available to the shopkeeper.

Grover said he believes that the government should remove all fees (MDR) on the movement of money such as payments through IMPS, NEFT, RTGS or UPI, as well as in terms of acceptance through cards and UPI.

“Everything has to be free to drive digital economy. Today is the best time as there has to be less contact and cash-based payments. Make MDR zero even on card payments,” he said.

Meanwhile, commenting about the trends in payments since the lockdown, he said volumes had gone down by about 75 per cent. But in the last two to three days, BharatPe has processed the highest in terms of value at about $7 million to $8 million a day through QRs.

“Even the previous high, in the month of February, we processed about $6 million a day,” he said.

While the volume is still at about 50 per cent, Grover said the spike in transactions was surprising, given that the lockdown is still on. The average ticket size of transactions on their platform is about ₹625 to ₹675, compared to ₹280 previously.

“People are stepping out lesser, they are transacting less frequently, but they are choosing to transact through UPI and QR codes, which is the least contactless way; and because they are buying larger amounts, the average ticket size has gone up,” he noted.