India’s Paytm is expanding its Paytm Postpaid program so that its payments app can be used by such places as small convenience shops, or kiranas, and chain stores — along with the possibility of an increased credit limit.
In a blog post announcing the move, the FinTech said it is a “significant expansion of Paytm Postpaid.”
Paytm added that the service will now be available to buy groceries, milk, and other home essentials from neighborhood kirana stores and other popular retail destinations such as Reliance Fresh — the convenience store format for the retail business of Reliance Industries of India.
Paytm, pronounced to rhyme with ATM, is based in Noida, India. Its payments app is based on the UPI platform by the National Payments Corporation of India. Other such apps that use UPI include Google Pay, PhonePe, WhatsApp and BHIM.
Paytm said it will also extend its app to cover “various bill payments facilities available on Paytm, shopping on Paytm Mall, and online payments at internet apps such as Domino’s, Tata Sky, Pepperfry, HungerBox, Patanjali, Spencer’s among others.”
The company said that its service would provide relief to its users “during the ongoing lockdown, as the increased credit limit and a large set of use-cases will eliminate the need to withdraw cash for meeting monthly household expenses.”
According to Paytm, the service will be offered in partnership with two nonbanking financial companies — offering “an instant credit line for various payments to Paytm app users.”
The company said it saw “an increasing demand for consumer credit during the ongoing pandemic,” and so has increased its credit limits “to enable payment for large items such as furniture and consumer electronics among others.”
Paytm also offers its Paytm Payments Bank, which enables some 100,000 drivers to buy and recharge FASTags at major cities country-wide, the company said. As reported in February, a Paytm campaign earlier this year targeted gig economy drivers and followed Paytm’s re-signing of a payment partnership with Uber.
FASTags are prepaid rechargeable tags for the toll system operated by the National Highway Authority of India.
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