The
Paytm
CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma met Finance Minister
Nirmala Sitharaman
on February 6. According to people familiar with the matter, the meeting lasted for some 10 minutes. In the meeting with the FM, Sharma is said to have explained the company's position with regard to the various issues flagged by
RBI
.
Sitharaman is understood to have impressed upon Sharma the need to discuss the matter with the RBI and sort out the non-compliances that have been flagged. At the meeting with RBI, Sharma is reported to have sought an extension of the February 29 deadline, a transition plan and detailed the efforts underway to meet compliances specified by the regulator.
During the meeting with the minister, Paytm expressed concern regarding the prohibition on adding money to Paytm Payments Bank accounts and wallets after February 29 and the Fastag ban, highlighting the potential disruption due to the extensive number of affected accounts, many of which have standing instructions and linkages to other accounts, causing inconvenience to customers.
In an interview with TOI last week, Sitharaman had indicated as much. “It is for the regulator and the company to deal with each other,” she had said, while refraining from commenting further.
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Earlier in the day, Paytm top brass also met RBU officials to provide updates on their compliance efforts and seek clarity on the new directive. Their immediate concern revolves around retaining the virtual payment address @paytm for both app users and merchants and facilitating the one-time migration of merchant bank accounts.
In its discussions with RBI, the company had sought refuge in the argument that non-KYC wallets are a legacy issue stemming from digital wallets opened during the demonetisation period when wallets were permitted to be loaded with minimal KYC requirements. Initially, minimum KYC norms allowed for the opening of wallets with basic details, including a verified mobile number and a self-declaration of name and unique identification number.
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