Google Pay on Wednesday said all transactions made through its platform are fully protected by redressal processes laid out in the guidelines issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the National Payments Corporation of India.
The statement comes against the backdrop of social media buzz that issues that might arise while transferring money through Google Pay cannot be redressed under law as the app is unauthorised.
“Some quotes on Social Media, wrongly attributed to the RBI, claim that issues arising while transferring money through Google Pay are not protected by the law, since the app is unauthorized. This is incorrect and can be verified on NPCI’s website,” a Google spokesperson said.
According to the spokesperson, RBI has not said that the Google Pay app is unauthorised or not legally compliant in a court hearing or in its written response to the Delhi High Court.
Earlier, RBI told the Delhi High Court that Google Pay is a third party app provider and does not operate any payment systems.
Therefore, its operations are not in violation of the Payment and Settlement System Act of 2007, RBI had told a bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan.
The central bank had also informed the court that since Google Pay does not operate any payment system, it does not find a place in the list of authorised payment system operators published by NPCI.
“Google Pay operates completely within the law. Google Pay works as a technology service provider to partner banks, to allow payments via UPI (Unified Payments Interface). UPI apps in the country are categorized as ‘third party apps’, and are not required to be ‘payment systems operators’,” the Google spokesperson said.
The spokesperson noted that all transactions made via Google Pay are fully protected by redressal processes laid out by applicable guidelines.
“All transactions made via Google Pay are fully protected by redressal processes laid out by applicable guidelines of the RBI/ NPCI, and users can reach out for any help 24/7, through Google Pay customer care,” the spokesperson said.
The RBI’s submissions to the Delhi High Court came in response to a PIL by financial economist Abhijit Mishra who has alleged that Google’s mobile payment app, Google Pay or GPay in short, was facilitating financial transactions without the requisite authorization from RBI.
Mishra has claimed that GPay was acting as a payments system provider in violation of the Payments and Settlements Act as it has no valid authorisation from the central bank of the country to carry out such functions.
He has also contended that GPay does not figure in NPCI’s list of authorised ‘payment systems operators’ released on 20 March, 2019.
The bench said the matter requires detailed hearing as it affects other third-party apps and listed it on 22 July.