Aiding the government’s efforts to speed-up digital payments, Google on Monday launched its Unified Payment Interface (UPI)-based payment app ‘Tez’ for Android and iOS devices.
The app seeks to facilitate big or small payments through a mobile phone, and acts like a mobile wallet. For payments on Tez, Google has tied up with State Bank of India and other UPI supported banks.
Google also announced ‘Tez for Business’, which offers businesses new ways to unlock the potential of digital payments and engage their customers. Apart from English and Hindi, Tez is available in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi.
The company said payments made through Tez do not entail any charges. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley launched the app here. On the occasion, he said efforts were on to give momentum to digital payments, which witnessed a peak after demonetisation, but slipped thereafter.
Jaitley said, “Digital transactions should be a matter of ease rather than compulsion”. To inculcate this habit, the government has been working on providing multiple digital platforms.
Jaitley said that the success of demonetisation should also be measured by the fact that it inculcated the habit of digital payment among users.
Analysts said the fact that the government is standing behind Tez makes is safe payment platform. Tez is UPA-based, which is built by government-backed National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).
Published 18 September 2017, 10:13 IST