File picture of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Digital or e-rupee worth over ₹130 crore is in circulation on a pilot foundation as of February 28, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated on March 13.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had launched pilots in digital rupee in the wholesale phase (e₹-W) on November 1, 2022 and in the retail phase (e₹-R) on December 1, 2022.
Nine banks, viz., State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank and HSBC, have been taking part in the digital rupee wholesale pilot, Ms. Sitharaman stated.
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“As on February 28, 2023, the total digital rupee – Retail (e₹-R) and digital rupee – wholesale (e₹-W) in circulation is Rs 4.14 crore and Rs 126.27 crore, respectively,” Ms. Sitharaman stated in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
The e₹-R is in the type of a digital token that represents authorized tender. It is being issued in the identical denominations that paper foreign money and cash are presently issued.
It is being distributed by monetary intermediaries, i.e., banks. Users can transact with e₹-R by a digital pockets supplied by the taking part banks and saved on cellphones/gadgets.
The e₹ pilot for retail phase was launched on December 1, 2022 in 5 choose areas in closed person group for making Person to Person (P2P) and Person to Merchant (P2M) transactions.
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The on-boarded retailers comprise varied segments like tea distributors, fruit sellers, road facet and sidewalk distributors (together with migrant fruit distributors promoting on the pavement reverse the RBI’s headquarters, Mumbai), small shopkeepers and so on,” Ms. Sitharaman said.
Further, institutional merchants like retail chains, petrol pumps etc. have also been on-boarded to enable transactions in digital rupee across various outlets.
Few online merchants have also been enabled to accept digital rupee for the convenience of users.
In the approximately three months of the pilot, the total digital rupee – Retail (e₹-R) in circulation in the select locations is ₹4.14 crore, the Minister said.
“Various use instances, technological structure and design options are being examined through the pilot… Further steps, together with enlargement of use case, must be by a phased implementation technique on the premise of suggestions obtained through the pilots,” Ms. Sitharaman added.