Online cab service Uber is reportedly in talks with mobile-only marketplace and digital wallet service Paytm and online payment gateway PayU to integrate a digital wallet with Uber’s payment process, sources with direct knowledge of the discussions told The Economic Times. However, Paytm and Uber both declined to comment on this matter to the publication. This became necessary after last month Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a directive that Card Not Present (CNP) transactions for purchases of goods and services in India had to be processed through Indian banks and payments needed to be made in INR. This negatively affected services like Amazon, Google Play, Apple Store among others, besides Uber that use international payment gateways and effectively circumvent the two-step credit card authentication process. Also, Uber charges consumer’s credit cards directly in case of taxi cancellations. This feature is not available with any other Indian taxi service provider. It is significant because the average cancellation charges are as high as 12%. RBI has given these companies time till October 31 to be compliant of the new rules. RBI had issued this directive after Mumbai-based radio cab service Meru Cabs had demanded a level-playing field between domestic and international companies, and asked RBI to extend its recurring billing guidelines to foreign players as well, in July this year. We had first flagged this issue back in 2012, though no steps were taken at that point. One97 Communications’ digital payments company Paytm received its semi-closed prepaid wallet license from the RBI…
