At present, taxpayers can pay their income tax dues through net banking and debit cards. The government is contemplating income tax payments through credit cards, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and mobile wallets.
While there are several banks authorised to accept payments through ‘netbanking’, the facility of ‘debit cards’ is allowed only by six banks. Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Indian Bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB) and State Bank of India (SBI) accept income tax payment through ‘debit cards’.
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As per press reports, the Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey has confirmed that UPI may soon be allowed for payment of taxes. Mr Bhushan said “For small payments, it might be more convenient for taxpayers to use mobile wallets. We are going to define ‘electronic payments’, which could be a wallet, credit card or UPI.”
The UPI payment service was launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) three years ago. Since then, UPI has been a popular payment method in India. In October, the UPI payment system had recorded about one billion payments. Several payments service providers including Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe and Amazon Pay have enabled UPI payments on their platforms.
For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at sweta.dugar@cleartax.in
I am a Chartered Accountant by profession. I specialise in personal taxes and corporate income tax matters. I am an avid reader and track developments in financial markets, economy and other market developments.
