The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has scrapped rates for USSD-based mobile banking and payment services in order to promote digital financial inclusivity. For such services, mobile operators charged 2G subscribers 0.50 paisa per session.
TRAI had previously issued a tariff regulation in 2013 imposing a ceiling fee for USSD-based mobile banking services at Rs 1.50 per session. Following that, the authorities cut the USSD-based banking and payment services fee ceiling from Rs 1.50 to Rs 0.50 paisa per session through an amendment in 2016.
On November 24, 2021, TRAI issued a draught regulation suggesting a “nil” charge for USSD sessions for mobile banking and payment services in order to analyze the present regulatory framework. The elimination of tariffs, however, will have no significant financial impact on mobile operators because only a small percentage of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s 2G users use USSD-based services. As a 4G-only provider, Reliance Jio does not have such users.
On their side, operators had urged TRAI to devise a method to compensate them by allowing them to recoup expenses and removing existing quality of service (QoS) responsibilities if the rate of such USSD-based mobile banking services was abruptly reduced to nil from 50 paise per session.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in its Telecommunication Tariff (68th Amendment) order, notified Thursday, that:
After analysing the comments received from stakeholders and other data/ information available with it, the authority is of the view that, to protect the interests of the USSD users and to promote digital financial inclusion, rationalisation of USSD charges is required. In view of the same, the authority has decided that the subscribers will not be charged for USSD for mobile banking and payment service.