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In its next meeting, slated for 9th September, the GST (Goods and Services Tax) Council may decide over imposing an 18% charge on <keyword id="20157806" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="payment-aggregators" source="keywords">payment aggregators</keyword> (PAs) like <keyword id="20290089" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Razorpay" source="keywords">RazorPay</keyword>, Stripe, PayU, Pine Labs, and more. Reportedly, these charges will be levied on small value transactions of up to Rs 2,000, which are made via <keyword id="22719132" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="debit-and-credit-cards" source="keywords">debit and credit cards</keyword>. Until now, all payment aggregators were exempt from GST on all transactions up to Rs 2,000. We decode what it means for you, and how it will impact your pockets. What's happening? The <keyword id="22666613" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fitment-committee" source="keywords">fitment committee</keyword>, which is made up of revenue officials from both center and states, is considering levying an 18% GST on payment aggregators. This is because officials feel that PAs are mere facilitators and intermediaries for card-based transactions, unlike banks, and thus, should be brought under GST purview. At present, they are exempt on paying GST on transaction of value less than Rs 2,000. But, if the proposal goes through in the 54th <keyword id="19994390" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="GST-Council" source="keywords">GST Council</keyword> meeting, every transaction you make through your credit or debit cards going ahead via such PAs will become costlier. Who are payment aggregators? PAs are essentially third-party service providers that let customers pay, and allow businesses to collect payments made via UPI, credit/debit cards or more. They are the interface between the customers and the merchants, allowing customers to opt for multiple, secure payment options, and also letting merchants manage and track fund collections and refunds. For their services, PAs levy a payment gateway fee, which ranges between 0.5% to 2% for each transaction. Post demonetisation in 2016, when currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 were discontinued with immediate effect, the government had waived off taxes on credit and debit card transactions of up to Rs 2,000, in order to boost digital payments. If GST is levied, PAs are likely to pass on this cost to merchants. Will UPI be affected? No. Currently, UPI does not currently have a MDR, or merchant discount rate. UPI will continue to remain a lucrative option for PAs and merchants, especially for transactions under Rs 2,000, since they will not attract GST. PAs charge MDR to businesses for processing credit and debit card transactions on their behalf. What will change? The move is likely to affect small businesses the most, who thrive on multiple, low value transactions. Think of this. Say you make a payment of Rs 1,500 via your credit card on Razorpay. If the PA sets its fee at 1% of each transaction, the business will have to pay Rs 15 to the PA. But now, with the potential additional 18% GST applicable, the business will have to pay Rs 2.7 more, or about Rs 17.7 to these PAs. This might not seem much at first, but compounded over multiple transactions, might snowball into a significant cost for small businesses.

GST Council mulling 18% GST on low value transactions made via RazorPay, PayPal and more. Here's how it will impact you

<ul><li>The number of <keyword id="7771650" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="gig-workers" source="Orion">gig workers</keyword> earning more than ₹1,50,000 grew by 69%, while gig workers earning between ₹85,000 to ₹1,50,000 saw a spurt by 62%. </li><li><keyword id="982553" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-startups" source="Orion">Indian startups</keyword> are preferring to hire more gig workers than permanent employees. </li><li>While overall hiring has decreased, salary spends have increased by 64% since October 2021.</li></ul>Demand for gig professionals has been constantly rising in the country and this is reflected in the 153% growth in their salaries in the last one year, according to a report by Razorpay’s business banking platform RazorpayX Payroll. However, gig workers earning less than ₹20,000 saw the slowest salary growth at 26% in the last one year, while workers with salary between ₹20,000 to ₹40,000 witnessed a salary growth of 52%. The number of gig workers earning more than ₹1.5 lakh grew by 69%, while gig workers earning between ₹85,000 to ₹1.5 lakh saw a spurt by 62%. “This shows that gig-workers are gaining more popularity among startups than hiring full-time employees,” said the report. However, gig workers who are paid less than ₹20,000 form the largest chunk of the gig workers being hired by startups, followed by those who earn anywhere between ₹20,000 to ₹40,000. Indian startups’ preference for hiring more gig workers is seen in the 61% decline in hiring of new permanent employees since October 2021, while <keyword id="15395705" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="hiring-of-gig-workers" source="Orion">hiring of gig workers</keyword> rose 15% in the same period. This dip in hiring is seen across seniority with the <keyword id="7604725" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="CXO-hiring" source="Orion">CXO hiring</keyword> noticing a massive normalization, dropping by 93% since Oct 2021, the report added. “The Indian startup ecosystem has been facing headwinds in the past few months but they have been nothing short of resilient and adaptive to such a dynamic environment. Startups have been optimizing their workforce by building leaner yet stronger teams, keeping in mind the macro-forces,” said <keyword id="274057" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shashank-Mehta" source="Orion">Shashank Mehta</keyword>, vice president and head, RazorpayX. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Despite a drop in hiring, salary spends on a rise" comment="subhead" text="Despite a drop in hiring, salary spends on a rise">Despite a drop in hiring, salary spends on a rise</cmsannotation> While overall hiring has decreased, salary spends have increased by 64% since October 2021. “Contrary to previous trends, salaries across different salary levels have been rising gradually but not exponentially, at an average of 12%,” the report said. However, for gig workers, the growth in salary has been different across different scales. According to the report, the median salaries of gig-workers have increased by 19.9% in the last one year. The gender pay gap still prevails as salaries of males grew by 29% in the last one year compared to a 22% rise for females during the same period. This salary gap is accompanied by a lower participation of women in the workforce — for every 2 men that were hired in the last one year, 1 woman was hired. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/over-2-lakh-jobs-created-each-day-this-festive-season-says-report/articleshow/95204035.cms">Over 2 lakh jobs created each day this festive season, says report</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/indian-startups-make-deep-hiring-cuts-permanent-employee-hiring-down-61/articleshow/95206627.cms">Indian startups make deep hiring cuts, permanent employee hiring down 61%</a>

Number of gig workers earning over ₹85,000/month rose over 60% since last October: Report

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) after conducting raids at multiple locations belonging to <keyword id="714947" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="payment-gateways" source="Orion">payment gateways</keyword> i.e <keyword id="6357120" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="paytm" source="Orion">Paytm</keyword> and PayU in connection with a case of Chinese Loan apps, asked Paytm to freeze certain amounts from a few Merchant IDs (MIDs). Sources said the raids were conducted in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, Lucknow and <keyword id="6354925" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="kolkata" source="Orion">Kolkata</keyword>. The ED has not given any official comment on the matter. On September 3, raids were conducted at the premises belonging to online payments gateways including <keyword id="14887233" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="razorpay-pvt-ltd" source="Orion">Razorpay Pvt Ltd</keyword>, Cashfree Payments and <keyword id="14887232" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="paytm-payment-services-ltd" source="Orion">Paytm Payment Services Ltd</keyword>. A Paytm spokesperson said that as part of the ongoing investigations of a specific set of merchants, the ED has sought information regarding such merchants to whom we provide payment processing solutions. "These merchants are independent entities, and none of them are our group entities. We are, and will continue to, fully cooperate with the authorities, and all the directive actions are being duly complied with," said the Paytm spokesperson. The ED has instructed Paytm to freeze certain amounts from the Merchant IDs of a specific set of merchant entities (as mentioned by the ED in its press release). "None of the funds which have been instructed to be frozen belong to Paytm or any of our group companies. As we have mentioned before, ED continues to seek information about certain merchants from various payment service providers, and we have shared the required information," the Paytm spokesperson said. What is the case? The case is based on 18 FIRs registered by the Cyber Crime Police Station, Bengaluru City, against numerous persons for their involvement in extortion and harassment of the public who had availed small loans through the mobile apps being run by those entities. "During enquiries, it had emerged that these entities are operated by Chinese persons. The modus operandi of these entities is that by using forged documents of Indians and making them dummy directors of those entities, they are generating proceeds of crime," the ED said. The ED had said that it has come to its notice that the entities were conducting their suspected business through various Merchant IDs/Accounts held with Payment Gateways/banks. The premises of Razorpay Pvt Ltd, Cashfree Payments, Paytm Payment Services Ltd and entities controlled/operated by Chinese persons were covered in the search operations. "During the search operations, it was noticed that the said entities were generating proceeds of crime through various Merchant IDs/Accounts held with Payment Gateways/banks and they are also not operating from the addresses given on the <keyword id="6355225" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="mca" source="Orion">MCA</keyword> website/registered address and having fake addresses. An amount of Rs 17 crore has been seized in merchant IDs and bank accounts of these Chinese persons-controlled entities," the ED official had said. Meanwhile, a Razorpay spokesperson had said "Some of our merchants were being investigated by law enforcement about a year and a half back. As part of the ongoing investigation, the authorities requested additional information to help with the investigation. We have fully cooperated and shared <keyword id="167905" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="kyc" source="Orion">KYC</keyword> and other details. The authorities were satisfied by our due diligence process." The search operations are in progress. SEE ALSO : <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/weight-gain-during-the-pandemic-is-increasing-the-incidence-of-pcos-in-women/articleshow/94202794.cms">Weight gain during the pandemic is increasing the incidence of PCOS in women</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/indias-top-75-brands-are-worth-393-billion-thats-11-of-indias-gdp/articleshow/94203813.cms">TCS is India's most valuable brand worth $45.5 billion: Kantar</a>

ED asks Paytm to freeze certain amounts from few merchant IDs after raids (Ld)

<ul><li><keyword id="1518229" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="lenskart" source="Orion">Lenskart</keyword> and <keyword id="14005730" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="mirae-asset-capital" source="Orion">Mirae Asset Capital</keyword> have engaged with <keyword id="2777173" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="razorpay" source="Orion">Razorpay</keyword> for online transactions.</li><li>According to a Razorpay report, stock trading and mutual funds saw tremendous growth in transaction volumes.</li><li>The overall volume of digital payments has gained momentum over the last few years and saw a growth of 33% year-on-year during the financial year (FY) 2021-2022.</li></ul>Eyewear brand Lenskart and financial services conglomerate Mirae Asset Capital Markets have engaged Razorpay to enable online transactions on their platforms, the company said on Monday. “As a brand with a multichannel presence and transactions conducted with D2C and B2B partnerships, we needed a transparent and reliable payment gateway to lead the business transactions in all our retail environments. Today, with partners like Razorpay, we are catering to a customer base of over a million users,” said <keyword id="281032" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="indranil-chakravarty" source="Orion">Indranil Chakravarty</keyword>, chief business officer, Aqualens and Lenskart. According to a Razorpay report, other than e-commerce, food and travel sectors, the online transaction volumes of stock trading and mutual funds also grew at 75% and 100% respectively in 2022 as compared to the year before. “Given our fully digital business model, we are happy to have partnered with Razorpay in our journey at offering the best investment solutions to our customers in the most seamless way possible,” said Arun Chaudhry, director and chief business officer at Mirae Asset Capital Markets. <keyword id="3519846" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="rahul-kothari" source="Orion">Rahul Kothari</keyword>, chief business officer at Razorpay said that millions of businesses can benefit from the enormous growth digital medium offers. “We look forward to empowering them with a full-stack financial solution that acts as their central nervous system for everything payments and business banking,” said othari. The overall volume of digital payments has gained momentum over the last few years and saw a growth of 33% year-on-year in FY22. Around 7,422 crore digital payment transactions were recorded during this period, up from 5,554 crore transactions seen in FY21, a report by the <keyword id="3524863" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="ministry-of-electronics" source="Orion">Ministry of Electronics</keyword> and IT (MeitY) says. India’s digital payment market is expected to <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/indias-digital-payments-market-will-triple-to-10-trillion-by-2026-phonepe-bcg-study/articleshow/91963637.cms">triple</a> to $10 trillion by 2026, according to the latest study by digital payments firm <keyword id="6357886" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="phonepe" source="Orion">PhonePe</keyword> and Boston Consulting Group (BCG). SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/quirky-maker-of-flip-flops-merges-style-with-sustainability/articleshow/94145373.cms">Quirky maker of flip flops merges style with sustainability</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/electric-mobility-startup-yulu-raises-82-million-in-series-b-funding/articleshow/94143818.cms">Electric mobility startup Yulu raises $82 million in Series B funding</a>

Lenskart and Mirae Asset Capital sign up with Razorpay for online transactions

Fintech services platform Razorpay on Thursday announced it has acquired offline payments services provider <keyword id="6519244" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="ezetap" source="Orion">Ezetap</keyword>, becoming one of the few companies globally with a significant online and offline presence in payments. According to sources, the deal size is around $150-200 million. This marks Razorpay's sixth and biggest acquisition to date. The <keyword id="14747570" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="ezetap-team" source="Orion">Ezetap Team</keyword> of around 300 employees will join Razorpay and work as an independent business unit. "We believe that the businesses of tomorrow will not distinguish between physical and digital channels and will expect a unified payment experience through a single integrated platform," said Harshil Mathur, CEO and Co-founder, Razorpay. Ezetap provides software for financial technologies, including point of sales (POS) solutions, billing, loyalty solutions among others, enablingAbusinesses to accept payments in-store and on-delivery. It currently serves over 500,000 touchpoints, including <keyword id="18635" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="amazon" source="Orion">Amazon</keyword> and BigBasket, and works closely with banks like <keyword id="13222" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="sbi" source="Orion">SBI</keyword>, <keyword id="45123" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="hdfc" source="Orion">HDFC</keyword>, ICICI and Axis, among others, processing over $10 billion in annual transactions on its platform. "We join Razorpay's suite of products to collectively offer businesses the best-in-class omni-channel payments experience and are excited at the limitless possibilities that together both the companies are looking to explore in the omnichannel payment world," said Byas Nambisan, CEO of Ezetap. Prior to this, Razorpay acquired fintech startup IZealiant Technologies, Malaysia-based Curlec, TERA Finlabs, Opfin and Thirdwatch. With a $80 billion total payment value (TPV) as of April, Razorpay is eyeing a 10-12 million merchant base by next year. SEE ALSO : <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/rbi-tightens-norms-for-chinese-lending-apps/articleshow/93629917.cms">RBI tightens norms for Chinese lending apps</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/sustainability/news/genzs-millennials-are-turning-to-thrift-stores-to-upgrade-their-wardrobe-while-saving-the-environment/articleshow/93619737.cms">GenZs, millennials are turning to thrift stores to upgrade their wardrobe while saving the environment</a>

Fintech services platform Razorpay acquires offline payments firm Ezetap

<ul><li>India is now being recognized as one of the largest fintech unicorn ecosystems, home to 21 fintech unicorns.</li><li>Growing adaptation of technology, higher disposable income and young population is aiding the growth of financial technology which has big players like <keyword id="6357120" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="paytm" source="Orion">Paytm</keyword>, <keyword id="1763236" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="cred" source="Orion">Cred</keyword>, <keyword id="3711711" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="simpl" source="Orion">Simpl</keyword> etc.</li><li>Fintech growth in sectors like agriculture, retail, health and property technology will also accelerate the growth.</li></ul>The Indian fintech market is expected to grow ten times and have assets to the tune of $1 trillion asset under management by 2030, says a report by Chiratae Ventures and EY. This growth will come on the back of government initiatives such as Digital India, Smart City, the development of UPI, the report says. Growth will be driven by the digital lending market, which is expected to grow to $515 billion in book size by 2030 and a revenue of $200 billion. “India is now being recognized as one of the largest fintech unicorn ecosystems, home to 21 fintech unicorns as of March 2022,” says the report titled ‘$1 Tn India FinTech Opportunity’. Growing adaptation of technology, higher disposable income and young population is aiding the growth of financial technology which has big players like Paytm, Cred, Simpl, <keyword id="2777173" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="razorpay" source="Orion">Razorpay</keyword>, Instamojo, Lendingkart and many others. Popularity of ‘<keyword id="4585897" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="buy-now-pay-later" source="Orion">buy now pay later</keyword>’ <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/personal-finance/news/how-does-buy-now-pay-later-schemes-work-and-what-are-the-penalties-here/articleshow/87788629.cms">(BNPL) </a>products and services has also fueled the growth of the industry both in B2C and B2B payments space. Just like credit cards, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/personal-finance/news/how-does-buy-now-pay-later-schemes-work-and-what-are-the-penalties-here/articleshow/87788629.cms">BNPL schemes </a>allow you to buy products beforehand and pay the total amount in installments. According to TC Meenakshi Sundaram, co-founder and vice chairperson at Chiratae Ventures, fintechs have innovated for the underserved financial markets. The ecosystem has been supportive too. “These include fast-growing digital adoption and mobile penetration on the back of the cheapest data rates in the world offered by private telecom players, to enabling regulatory environment coupled with world-leading digital infrastructure (Aadhar, UPI, BBPS etc), and structural reforms and initiatives (GST, TReDSetc.),” said Sundaram. Fintech has also been growing in sectors like agriculture, retail, health and property technology. The report states that payments, digital lending, wealthtech, insurtech, and neo-banking will all be contributing to growth in the fintech space with agri+fintech and prop+fintech considered to be big bets. “India is recognized as a strong fintech hub globally and is increasingly becoming a talent destination for fintech businesses,” said Rajiv Memani, chairman and managing partner at EY India. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/not-only-foreign-investors-but-indian-retail-investors-also-seem-to-be-losing-faith-in-markets/articleshow/93457258.cms">Although FII flows have reversed, retail investor confidence remains low thanks to macro concerns</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/goa-hotels-had-the-most-occupancies-and-they-earned-more-too-says-report/articleshow/93456193.cms">Goa hotels had the most occupancies and they earned more too, says report</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/only-12-delhi-covid-19-cases-are-in-official-records-says-report/articleshow/93446996.cms">Only 12% Delhi Covid-19 cases are in official records, says report</a>

Indian fintechs to grow 10x and manage assets worth $1 trillion by 2030

<ul><li>The Reserve Bank of India capped the withdrawals from <keyword id="45660" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Yes-Bank">YES Bank</keyword> at ₹50,000 and that has set a frenzy in motion in the banking sector.</li><li>From digital payments companies, that have wallets, to the ones that offer financial services and were linked with YES Bank have now come in the eye of the storm. </li><li>YES Bank accounted for 40% of <keyword id="4052276" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="UPI-transactions">UPI transactions</keyword> in January 2020 – accounting for 514 million transactions. </li></ul>India’s central bank – the Reserve Bank of India capped the withdrawals from YES Bank at ₹50,000. That has set a frenzy in motion across the banking sector. People hurried to transfer money in netbanking or from the app, but both services were down from Thursday night, queues began in front of YES Bank ATMs. And, even fintech companies in India took a hit. From digital payments companies, that have wallets, to the ones that offer financial services were caught in the eye of the storm. According to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), YES Bank was the UPI partner for about 20 apps. The bank accounted for 40% of UPI transactions in January 2020 – accounting for 514 million transactions. <keyword id="6357886" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="phonepe">PhonePe</keyword>, the digital payments company’s servers went down late Thursday night, as it uses YES Bank as the backend for most of its UPI accounts. <div type="twitter" handle="PhonePe_" handlename="PhonePe" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1228394203421372416/4X3QZazb_normal.jpg" favoritecount="302" retweetcount="55" status="We are temporarily unavailable. We are going through an unscheduled maintenance activity. We apologize for any in… https://t.co/aiDh5XkKVx" createdat="1583432594000" id="1235631976263987201"></div>

 PhonePe’s CEO Sameer Nigam too addressed the issue early in the morning and wrote on Twitter, “Dear @PhonePe_ customers. We sincerely regret the long outage. Our partner bank (Yes Bank) was placed under moratorium by RBI. Entire team's been working all night to get services back up asap. We hope to be live in a few hours. Thanks for your patience. Stay tuned for updates!.” A few Twitter users called <a href="https://twitter.com/kamleshksingh/status/1235789461243363330">PhonePe</a> a collateral damage to the <keyword id="8873513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="yes-bank-crisis">YES Bank crisis</keyword>. Meanwhile, <keyword id="759851" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zerodha">Zerodha</keyword> which offers retail and institutional broking, currencies and commodities trading, mutual funds, and bonds, too addressed its customers’ concerns. Nitin Kamath, the founder and CEO of the company YES Bank customers to change their primary bank linked with their Zerodha accounts immediately. “We have cancelled all fund withdrawal requests made by clients to their YES bank accounts so that the money doesn’t get blocked. Please change, if your primary bank account is YES, to any other and withdraw the funds,” he wrote on <a href="https://twitter.com/Nithin0dha/status/1235618502112727040">Twitter. </a> Payments processing platform <keyword id="2777173" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Razorpay">Razorpay</keyword> maintained that its payment gateway services are unaffected, yet didn’t rule that ‘some other services might be affected’. <div type="twitter" handle="Razorpay" handlename="Razorpay" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1032964966058536965/74NDff34_normal.jpg" favoritecount="61" retweetcount="30" status="Update on Yes Bank being placed under moratorium by RBI. Our payment gateway services are unaffected. While some o… https://t.co/yz2qH52xHB" createdat="1583431569000" id="1235627677467303936"></div>

 See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/yes-bank-mobile-and-net-banking-down-after-rbi-limits-withdrawals-to-50000/articleshow/74499754.cms">Yes Bank mobile and net banking down after RBI limits withdrawals to ₹50,000</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/indias-largest-bank-stock-sees-the-sharpest-fall-in-over-7-years-investors-want-to-say-no-to-yes-bank/articleshow/74504449.cms">India's largest bank stock sees the sharpest fall in over 7 years — investors want to say 'no' to Yes Bank</a>

YES Bank – a leader in UPI transactions leaves payment companies like PhonePe high and dry

<ul><li>This could be a huge opportunity for companies and payments startups providing access to <keyword id="6367143" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="LIC">LIC</keyword>'s over 250 million customers.</li><li>Business Insider has learnt that, on February 5, 2021, LIC floated the “request for proposal (RFP)” for a contract which will be valid for five years.</li><li>Check out the latest news and updates on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/">Business Insider.</a></li></ul>The <keyword id="6365973" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="life-insurance-corporation">Life Insurance Corporation</keyword> of India (LIC), the country’s largest and over half a century old insurer, has a golden egg for India’s payment gateway operators. LIC is currently inviting bids from payment aggregator companies to enable digital payment of premiums for its over 250 million customers – an opportunity for the likes of <keyword id="2777173" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Razorpay">Razorpay</keyword>, Paytm, PayU to pounce upon and gain LIC’s millions of users overnight. <div type="image" title="LIC" msid="81304415" hostid="261"></div> Business Insider has learnt that, on February 5, 2021, LIC floated the “request for proposal (RFP)” for a contract which will be valid for five years. The RFP, seen by Business Insider, states that “LIC wishes to avail a comprehensive, fully automated end to end solution for all types of collections of LIC, not limited to just premiums, by integrating LIC’s website with an integrated Internet Payment Aggregator”. <div type="Youtube" id="Vvc-BuPvE3k" title="India&amp;#39;s largest insurer LIC is inviting bids from payment aggregators⁠" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Vvc-BuPvE3k/mqdefault.jpg"></div> LIC had earlier floated a similar bid in 2017, but the bid had not seen the light of the day. But now, there are big things lined up for LIC. The 65-year old insurer is headed for a market debut too this year, as announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget 2020 speech. One of India’s payment gateway operators Razorpay has confirmed to Business Insider that it has been invited to bid for LIC, and will be submitting its proposal in March. However, the billion dollar startup did not share any further details. For LIC, a tryst with ‘using data’ For technology enthusiasts like Rajeev Suri, the managing director at Orios Venture Partners, the bigger benefit lies for LIC in this partnership. Suri takes a leaf out of China’s playbook to cite the example of Alipay and its success. Alipay, the payments app from Jack Ma’s Ant Financial, used data from the payments vertical to<a href="https://hbr.org/2020/09/why-hasnt-apple-pay-replicated-alipays-success#:~:text=Alipay%2C%20which%20was%20spun%20off,behind%20it%20went%20beyond%20payments."> sell more products to users</a>, which eventually led to Ant Financial becoming a mammoth financial company with a valuation of over $300 billion. The data that these payment aggregators have, would give LIC the opportunity to direct policies to the right user, making way for a deeper penetration of <keyword id="35450" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="insurance">insurance</keyword> in India. And it is this disruption of data that is driving the story for LIC. “Today, insurance is mainly used as a tax saving alternative. But with data from these startups will help LIC. That is the data driven magic that happened in China that built the most powerful IPO the world has ever seen. And it could happen with LIC too,” said Suri. For any payment gateway operator, an opportunity of a lifetime According to a Goldman Sachs report, the online individual insurance market (life and health) could be worth $1.25bn by FY25, more than tripling from $365mn in FY20. And without a doubt, LIC holds the mammoth share of the market. <div type="image" title="LIC" msid="81304426" hostid="261"></div> For India’s payment startups, this will be a big chance to gain more users and transactions. In 2019-20 alone, LIC processed premiums worth ₹3.79 lakh crore ($51.7 billion). And this, while India continues to remain a poorly insured country with barely 4% market penetration, leaving a wide opportunity for LIC to grow further. India’s digital payment market is projected to grow to be worth $300 billion by FY25, according to a report by Bank of America from January 2021. And at the heart of it are homegrown players like Paytm, Razorpay who will be riding the wave of <keyword id="6358577" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="digital-payments">digital payments</keyword>. Insurance in India is still heavily regulated and for any startup, working with LIC would mean clearing many hurdles at once. “LIC is the grandmaster of insurance in India. For any startup partnering with LIC would mean an easier sell of insurance to consumers, the trust deficit associated with financial products would go away when there is an association with LIC,” Suri told Business Insider. For startups, which are still heavily concentrated in India’s bigger cities, working with LIC will open up direct access to users across Tier 2, 3 cities. Suri believes that the startups would become a ‘trustworthy’ company across India as the recognition value of LIC is high. So who can bid for the LIC tender? Partnering with India’s biggest life insurer, which is also headed for the public markets in what is called as the ‘biggest IPO of the decade’, won’t be an easy task. LIC in its RFP has already issued an eligibility criteria with multiple factors that each amount to a set number of points. The points will be decided on factors such as the total value of digital transactions done by the company in 2019-20, with over ₹50 crore taking the highest points, number of years of experience in the industry, among others. For a company to win the bid, it will need a minimum of 75 points. But that’s not the only hiccup. To bid for LIC means the company would have to first give an Earnest Money Deposit OF ₹10 lakh and the final winner would have to submit a Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) of ₹10 crore. And all of this makes it a little complicated. "Technically, because of bidding these end up being low revenue opportunities," a source at one of the top payment aggregators told Business Insider on the condition of anonymity. Interestingly, there are many more players entering the payments industry with full force. From Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance to the Jeff Bezos-led Amazon have partnered with banks and other organisations, to apply for a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/explained-the-nue-licence-for-payments-that-tata-ambani-and-bezos-have-applied-for/articleshow/81268434.cms">new umbrella entity (NUE) licence</a>, which will have powers similar to the apex body National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/explained-the-nue-licence-for-payments-that-tata-ambani-and-bezos-have-applied-for/articleshow/81268434.cms">EXPLAINED: The NUE licence for payments that Tata, Ambani and Bezos have applied for</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/personalities/news/meet-jay-chaudhry-the-man-who-studied-under-a-tree-in-himachal-to-become-one-of-the-worlds-top-billionaires-today/articleshow/81288884.cms">Meet Jay Chaudhry, the man who studied under a tree in Himachal to become one of the world’s top billionaires today</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/elon-musk-and-reliance-industries-mukesh-ambani-compete-in-energy-storage-skytran-and-hyperloop/articleshow/81266903.cms">Elon Musk is facing a challenge from Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani in India⁠— both in energy and transportation</a>

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