While the government is taking a lot of initiatives to encourage small businesses to use digital payment platforms, at PayU, we keep updating our products/features to ensure smooth online transactions for you and your customers. PayU payment gateway offers all payment options from NEFT (bank transfer), UPI, e-wallets, and others.

What is NEFT?

NEFT is an electronic payment system that allows individuals to transfer funds from one bank account to another. Funds transferred under NEFT are settled in batches in hourly time slots. It can take anywhere between 2-24 hrs for a NEFT transfer.

While there is no minimum limit of transferring through NEFT, private banks have set maximum limits for money transfer. Therefore, this mode of payment is quite relevant for businesses who wish to carry out direct transfers with a large amount of sum involved.

Earlier, NEFT could only be done during the banking hours, from 8:00 am to 7:45 pm on all working days. No NEFT transactions used to happen on second, fourth Saturdays and bank holidays. However, from now on, the NEFT facility will be available on all days of the year, including holidays. 

Other Features of 24*7 NEFT Facility

1. There will be 48 half-hourly batches every day. The settlement of first batch will commence after 00:30 hours and the last batch will end at 00:00 hours.
2. NEFT transactions after usual banking hours of banks are expected to be automated transactions initiated using ‘Straight Through Processing (STP)’ modes by the banks.
3. The existing discipline for crediting beneficiary’s account or returning the transaction (within 2 hours of settlement of the respective batch) to originating bank will continue.
4. Member banks will ensure sending of positive confirmation message (N10) for all NEFT credits.
5. All provisions of NEFT procedural guidelines will be applicable for NEFT 24×7 transactions as well.

Benefits of 24*7 NEFT for Your Small Business

1. Improved Cash Flow – This new feature would allow people to make payments round the clock – wherever and whenever they want. Therefore, as an online retailer, you can expect timely payments and improved cash flow in your business with this feature, post-December. You can also improve your cash flow by enabling PayU’s Same Day Settlements feature.
2. Zero Transaction Charges – In June this year, RBI had waived off NEFT/RTGS processing charges to promote digital payments amongst small businesses. Earlier, banks were charging between Rs 30 and Rs 55 for a single RTGS transaction, and upto Rs 20 for NEFT transfers.
3. Track Payments – If you are making any bulk transfers through NEFT, you don’t have to worry about keeping a track of it. You can check your payments anytime, anywhere. PayUmoney’s powerful dashboard too allows you to track, manage and reconcile payments made through NEFT or any other medium. You will receive a notification on your registered mobile number and PayUmoney dashboard for every transaction you make through NEFT.

Interestingly, RBI also wants to bring in a central fraud regulatory system to track fraud transactions. This too will help build digital payments ecosystem stronger as more businesses will feel secure about their payments.

According to RBI’s vision document for e-payments which outlines the road map for 2019-2021:

E-payment systems such as IMPS/UPI will register an average annualized growth of over 100% and NEFT 40% till 2021.

Number of digital transactions is expected to increase more than four times.

Cheque-based payments are expected to dip to under 2% of the retail electronic transactions.

Conclusion

It is encouraging to see the government taking steps to empower e-payments customer experience across the country. On the whole, this will be a win-win situation for online small businesses and customers.

PayU is a one-stop online payment solution for businesses. With more than 4.5 lakh merchants and growing, we give our merchants an opportunity to give their customers a seamless checkout experience, expand the reach and grow their business. For more details,

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