In October 2023, India registered a record-breaking 11 billion UPI transactions. This is the outcome of the continuously developing digital payments infrastructure in India and the increasing adoption by the next-gen users. However, the growth of digital payments doesn’t signify the end of offline payments, especially in tier-2, tier-3 cities and other more remote areas of the country. The question arises, how do you reach your customers both online and offline? Do you have to integrate with each digital payment app and incur high costs to offer both digital and offline payment options to your customers? Here, BBPS enters as a viable solution.

Bharat Bill Pay System (BBPS) is a unified platform connecting businesses to both online payment apps and offline collection centres with a single integration. Let’s delve into what BBPS is, how it works and how it benefits you, the biller, and your customers.

BBPS Explained: What is it and why is it important?

What is BBPS?

Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), powered by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), is an integrated online ecosystem facilitating anytime, anywhere payments. BBPS connects 35 lakh+ offline collection centres and 150+ digital payment channels including major UPI apps like Google Pay, PhonePe, Paytm, Cred, and more for all kinds of bill payments. A single integration, often facilitated by payment aggregators like Cashfree Payments gives you access to this network which enables you to provide multiple payment options for your customers, both online and in-person.

Components of BBPS ecosystem

Let’s take a look at the different components of the BBPS ecosystem and how it works.

Billers/Businesses	The billers are entities that generate the repeat bills to be paid. The billers can be utility providers like DISCOMs, NBFCs, DTH providers or any of the 20+ categories specified here.
Biller Aggregator	Biller Aggregators like Cashfree acts as the touchpoint that connects you, the biller, to the BBPS network with additional capabilities like advanced analytics, real time reporting with active 24*7 support.
Biller Operating Unit	These are authorised operating units, usually banks, that offer the BBPS services to the billers.
Bharat Bill Payment Central Unit (BBPCU)	Authorised by RBI, NBBL acts as BBPCU to establish the rules and regulatory standards for BBPS. BBPCU also handles all settlements for the transactions happening in the BBPS network.
Consumer Operating Unit	Similar to BOUs, these authorised operating units are consumer-facing collection agents.
Agent Institution	These are customer-facing apps (UPI apps like Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Groww, Simpl etc.) or physical outlets like banks.
Agent	Agents are entities that integrate with Consumer Operating Unit (COU) or Agent Institutions to provide BBPS services to the end consumer.

Why is BBPS the next-generation bill payments infrastructure?

Collecting bill payments has become significantly easier with a BBPS integration for businesses across categories. The BBPS network has seen a significant year-on-year growth since 2021 due to its high interoperability, extensive reach and cost-effectiveness. As of June 2023, more than 21000+ billers across 20+ categories are live on the BBPS network.

As BBPS is revolutionising India’s bill payments landscape with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of a whopping 73%, we are compelled to take a look at how it benefits both the billers and the end consumers.

Why should Billers consider BBPS?

• Single integration to collect payments both online and offline 
• Automatic reconciliation that happens as soon as the bill payments are made.
• Guaranteed settlements within 24 hours.
• Real-time reporting and alerts for all incoming bill payments.
• Centralised grievance addressal portal to resolve all settlement related queries.

What are your consumers gaining from BBPS?

• Easy digital payment options like UPI and net banking.
• Anytime, anywhere payments both online and offline with 12+ payment modes.
• Instant confirmation of payments made.
• Digital-first grievance addressal to avoid any payment related issues.

Cashfree Payments’ Biller solution for BBPS 

Realising the importance of BBPS in the next-generation bill payments, Cashfree Payments built the Biller solution for BBPS to provide fast, compliant and easy-to-onboard tech infrastructure to businesses who are seeking to collect bill payments seamlessly from their customers. Cashfree’s Biller solution for BBPS acts as a Biller Aggregator that easily connects the billers to the BBPS network with a single integration.

1. Easy and quick implementation – With Cashfree’s Biller solution, you can eliminate the need to integrate with each UPI app and offline collection centres to collect bills. With just a single integration, you can utilise 150+ digital channels including popular UPI apps and 35 lakh+ offline centres to collect bill payments. Cashfree’s Biller solution lets you go live on the BBPS network within 3 weeks.

2. 4X cost savings – Cashfree’s Biller solution helps you save the cost of setting up collection centres, manual collection and reconciliation efforts – reducing the operational costs by more than 4 times. 

3. Complete visibility and compliance – For any bill payment made, you get instant real-time alerts. The payments are also automatically reconciled saving you the effort of manual reconciliation. Since BBPS is powered by NPCI, you can also ensure compliance without any additional efforts.

4. Low code automation – Cashfree’s Biller solution is a low code solution that automates the collection process, reconciliation and tracking all incoming payments with ease.

5.Predictable cash flow – As a BBPS biller with Cashfree, you would get guaranteed settlements within 24 hours the bill payment is made.

When should you consider Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS)?

Currently, there are 20+ categories under which businesses can collect payments using Bharat Bill Payment Scheme.This list includes electricity, mobile postpaid, LPG, loan repayment and many more. If you are a biller across any of these categories, you are eligible to be part of the BBPS network as a biller.

A typical BBPS biller’s business goals may look like:

• Collecting recurring bill payments from your customers both online and offline.
• Reducing costs of setting up payment bill collection via different UPI apps. 
• Reducing costs of integrating with lakhs of offline centres individually.
• Reducing manual efforts in reconciliation of bill payments.
• Digitally transforming the bill collection process for the next-generation bill payers.

Biller categories and examples: