Recently, Prime Minister announced a new digital payments app named BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money). It is for now available only on Android platform. The BHIM app is supposed to support Aadhaar-based payments, where transactions will be possible with just a fingerprint impression, but that facility is yet to start.

What can BHIM do?

BHIM is a digital payments solution app based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella organisation for all retail payments systems in India. If you have signed up for UPI-based payments on your bank account, which is also linked to your mobile phone number, you’ll be able to use the BHIM app to carry out digital transactions.

BHIM will let you send and receive money to other UPI accounts or addresses. You can also send money via IFSC (Indian Financial System Code) and MMID (Mobile Money Identifier) Code to users who don’t have a UPI-based bank account. There’s also the option of creating your own QR (Quick Response) code for a fixed amount of money, which the merchant can scan to make the deduction.

BHIM is not a mobile wallet

No. You can store a limited amount of money in a mobile wallet like Paytm or MobiKwik, which you can send only to someone who is using the same wallet. But BHIM is UPI-based, and thus linked directly to a bank account. All the payee needs is a bank account. If this account is UPI activated, you can just ask for the payee’s VPA or virtual payment address, and make the payment to that account.

Otherwise, there’s the option of IFSC or MMID for sending or receiving money. The advantage is there’s no need to remember an account number, or to share it with anyone. The VPA is all that is needed. Up to Rs 10,000 can be sent per transaction, and up to Rs 20,000 in any 24 hours.