Finance Ministry planning mobile banking based on USSD

[SVK]

http://www.business-standard.com/article/finance/soon-you-won-t-need-smartphone-for-mobile-money-transfers-114061300232_1.html

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley might next month launch mobile banking services for people not using smartphones. The move is aimed at pushing financial inclusion in India and bringing down banks' cost of servicing clients.
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NPCI is going to use the USSD (unstructured supplementary service data) technology to facilitate banking on basic phones. BSNL and MTNL have already run pilots of the service in Delhi, Mumbai and some other cities. A service based on the USSD platform will be offered on a short code - *99# - irrespective of telecom service provider, mobile handset make or region.
Officials said the technology was ready for long but it took time to get telecom operators on board, as there were disagreements over pricing. The finance ministry was insisting on keeping the price at 40 paise per transaction.

 

[Sushubh]

Why does government gets to make money from this?

 

[SVK]

How govt making money from this? 40p is charge by operator or bank I think.

 

[Sushubh]

Telcos against zero tariffs for USSD-based services

"Charges of USSD service for mobile banking should be brought down in phases from current 50 paise to 5-10 paise, but in case the Authority plans to reduce it to zero, it may then create a suitable mechanism for fair compensation of telcos by concerned stakeholders," Bharti Airtel said in its...

economictimes.indiatimes.com