Digital Rupee Amounting To Over Rs 130 Crore In Circulation In Wholesale And Retail Segments: Govt

The government on Monday (13 March) informed the Parliament that the Digital Rupee (e₹-R) amounting to over Rs 130 crore is currently in circulation in the country.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had launched pilots in Digital Rupee in the Wholesale segment (e₹-W) on 1 November and in the Retail segment (e₹-R) on 1 December.

The e₹-R is in the form of a digital token that represents legal tender and is being issued in the same denominations that paper currency and coins are currently issued.

The digital currency is being distributed through financial intermediaries, i.e., banks.

Users can transact with e₹-R through a digital wallet offered by the participating banks and stored on mobile phones/devices.

The e₹-R offers features of physical cash like trust, safety and settlement finality.

As in the case of cash, it does not earn any interest and can be converted to other forms of money, like deposits with banks.

"As on 28 February 2023, the total digital Rupee - Retail (e₹-R) and digital Rupee - Wholesale (e₹-W) in circulation is ₹ 4.14 crore and ₹ 126.27 crore respectively," Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

The minister further informed that nine banks -- State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, IDFC First Bank and HSBC -- have been participating in the Digital Rupee wholesale pilot.

She said that the e₹ pilot for retail segment was launched on 1 December 2022 in five select locations in Closed User Group for making Person to Person (P2P) and Person to Merchant (P2M) transactions.

The on-boarded merchants comprise various segments like tea vendors, fruit sellers, street side and sidewalk vendors (including migrant fruit vendors selling on the pavement opposite the RBI’s headquarter, Mumbai), small shopkeepers etc.

Further, institutional merchants like retail chains, petrol pumps etc. have also been on-boarded to enable transactions in Digital Rupee across various outlets.

Few online merchants have also been enabled to accept Digital Rupee for the convenience of users. In the approximately three months of the pilot, the total digital Rupee - Retail (e₹-R) in circulation in the select locations is Rs 4.14 crore, the minister said.

She further said that various use cases, technological architecture and design features are being tested during the pilot. Awareness with regard to features of digital rupee is being spread among public through media campaigns and various events held by RBI.

Further steps, including expansion of use case, have to be through a phased implementation strategy on the basis of feedback received during the pilots, she added.