The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) could soon introduce sound-based payments option to make Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments easier, reported Business Standard.

As per the report, three companies, i.e. PhonePe, ToneTag and UltraCash hired by the NPCI are in the process of testing sound-based e-payment technology.

The report said that the project has ‘moved from preliminary tests to proof of concept stage, where banks are participating with their independent mobile wallet products to see how sound-based payments can be plugged in.’

The development comes as there was a rise in UPI-based transactions since 2016.

However, the report said that the method is still facing hurdles and resistance from various circles. This has prompted the NPCI to come up with new methods to make UPI more user friendly.

“There is a huge demand of moving person to merchant transactions away from cash. QR code is interoperable but it has experience and security challenges, since QR codes are static and they can be replicated easily,” Kumar Abhishek, founder of Tonetag, was quoted saying in the report.

However, the sound based system could face several challenges as they have yet to be proven its capability in the country, the report said.

First Published:May 16, 2018 11:07 AM IST