India to pay wages and benefits with prepaid cards

The Indian government is to use prepaid cards to pay wages and social security benefits in a bid to avoid misuse of money.

The Indian government is to use prepaid cards to pay wages and social security benefits in a bid to avoid misuse of money.

The government will soon make payments to rural workers in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) using prepaid cards, according to a research report.

NREGS is a job guarantee scheme for rural Indians providing at least 100 days paid work per year to adult members of any household.

In addition the Delhi government has launched the Saral Money Prepaid card to provide banking services to those unable to open a bank account as a result of missing supporting documents.

The report by RNCOS, titled ‘Indian Prepaid Card Market Outlook to 2017’ also states that consumer to government payments using prepaid cards in increasing.

Between 2007 and 2012 the market share of prepaid cards had a compound annual growth rate of 75.2%.

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