Highlights:
- Customers can access coins using their UPI account through these machines.
- Improved coin accessibility is the aim, according to the governor.
- RBI raises repo rate by 0.25% to 6.5%.
Shaktikanta Das, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, announced on Wednesday that the central bank would begin a pilot project for QR code-based coin vending machines (QCVM) in 12 cities across the nation. Instead of physically tendering banknotes, these vending machines will issue coins in exchange for a debit to the customer’s account utilising the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
“This will enhance the ease of accessibility to coins. Based on the learnings from the pilot, guidelines will be issued to banks to promote the distribution of coins using these machines,” said the governor.
In response to the outcome of the Monetary Policy for the year 2023, the governor of the central bank announced that the RBI would introduce the QR code-based coin vending machine to improve accessibility to coins.
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The RBI Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), headed by Governor Shaktikanta Das, increased the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.5 percent on Wednesday, significantly increasing borrowing costs for businesses and consumers.
The governor believes that at this time, a rate increase of 25 basis points is reasonable. The chance to assess the consequences of the steps taken thus far on the inflation forecast and the overall economy is provided by the reduction in the size of the rate hike, he continued.
The central bank tries to stop the flow of money into the economy when there is high inflation. Increasing the repo rate is one method of achieving this. It makes financing expensive for firms and industries, which in turn slows down investment and the availability of money on the market.
