While it has no specific date in mind for a full-fledged launch of the CBDC, the xentral bank will take a measured approach, it said. The RBI also has plans to make the united payments interface (UPI) platform fully interoperable with the CBDC.
“We are not targeting a specific date, it will be a calibrated approach,” said T Rabi Sankar, deputy governor, RBI. “We want to assess the impact and learn as we go. By the end of June we are targeting 1 million CBDC users. We are also planning to make UPI QR code interoperable with CBDC.”
The CBDC is similar to the physical currency in terms of being a legal tender, accepted as a medium of payment and a safe store of value. The e-rupee is expected to provide an additional form of money to be used by the public.
The first pilot e-rupee in the retail segment was launched on December 1, 2022 in select locations in a closed user group comprising customers and merchants across the country. A pilot for e-rupee in the wholesale segment for settlement of secondary market transactions in government securities, was launched on November 1, 2022 with the participation of nine banks.
In February, the RBI had said that in the CBDC project banks had added 50,000 users, 5000 merchants and conducted about 7.7 lakh transactions. While 8 banks were participating in the retail pilot, it was later extended to 5 more banks.