Last updated: February 27th, 2019 1:58 AM

PayGov

There are several e-Governance initiatives in India at the National, State, District and block level. The Government of India recognised that e-Governance is extended across the various arms of the government at the national, state and local government level. To make available all the government services to the common man, the Government of India implemented the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). This enables web-enabled anytime, anywhere to obtain information and services, specifically in rural and remote areas. The Department of Information Technology (DIT) has established a common e-Governance infrastructure that offers an end-to-end transactional experience for an individual that includes accessing various services through the internet with a payment gateway interface for online payments. In this article, let us take a glance of PayGov.

Overview of Online Payment Gateway process

The State/ Department mobile application in association with PayGov India works with the concerned service provider or the Department to process the service request. The online payment gateway facilitates the citizen and the citizen service centres/ agents for services that are available at the State/ Department mobile application. The online transaction is explained below.

1. A citizen/ customer has the Department's mobile application installed in his/ her mobile. The customer opens the mobile app to submit the online request. The customer files the online form containing the details as required by the specific service providers. Depending on the service type, the mobile app identifies the service amount that has to be paid by the customer.
2. The mobile application invokes the mobile browser and makes a call to the designated Department's Central URL after passing the required parameters.
3. The Central URL on receiving the input parameters creates a Unique Transaction  ID and generates the request message string according to the PayGov India Payment Gateway transaction initiation message specifications.
4. The Central URL then redirects the user to the underlying PayGov India WAP URL.
5. At the payment gateway, the customers display various payment options such as Debit Card/ Credit Card/ Online Net Banking/ IMPS etc. Depending on the selected choice, the customer would be redirected to the relevant bank/ card page to make the payment. The customer has to provide the relevant authentication details at the banker's website and confirm the payment amount.
6. Once confirming the payment, the customer's account is debited, and the customer is then directed back to the designated Return URL in the mobile browser.
7. Based on this response, the Department displays an acknowledgement to the customer.
8. The payment gateway generates a unique transaction ID for each order number that is received. This number can be used for queries that are related to transactions.

Registration Process

Every State/ Department mobile application is required to be registered with Payment Gateway. Every service that is offered by the departments is registered and allocated a unique service ID by the state/ department. Any payment transaction that is initiated from the State/ Department Mobile application has to carry the Merchant ID and the Service ID that is allowed by the Payment Gateway for which the request is made by the user. The gateway accepts applications of only the registered merchant IDs and service IDs for further processing. Moreover, the State/ Department appoints a Nodal Agency/ officer for all interaction with NDML concerning the payment gateway which acts as a focal point for all integration and payment/ account settlement.

• The State/ Department executes an agreement with NDML to avail the payment gateway facilities.
• Registration of State/ Department mobile application: State/ Department forwards the duly filled registration forms to NDML for registration with the Payment Gateway. Payment Gateway allows a merchant ID to the State/ Department. The merchant ID has to be mentioned in all online payment transactions.
• State/ Department provides the bank details to credit funds that are collected via the payment gateway. Nodal agency/ officer maintains a database of all the bank accounts for all services related to the payment gateway with the corresponding department/ Service for which the service fee has to be credited. This information is a pre-requisite for the integration of the payment gateway.

Disputes of Charges

According to the card associations guidelines, the cardholders can dispute a charge that they see against their credit/ debit card. The cardholder raises the dispute to the issuing bank that he/ she did not process the transaction, or that the Department has not offered services for a specific charge.

Process for Disputing Charges

• The customer raises a dispute with the concerned bank.
• The issuing bank, in turn, raises the dispute request with the acquiring bank.
• The acquiring bank informs the Payment Gateway regarding the dispute request notice. The Payment Gateway reverts to the acquiring bank within seven business days after receiving the request receipt.
• The Payment Gateway immediately intimates the Department of dispute request receipt with all the relevant details of the transactions.
• Depending on the intimation, the Department verifies the dispute request based on the internal process. The Department has to provide Payment Gateway with a response within three working days with the following documents.
  • Success Updation Screenshot: The screenshot could be from the Department's system that specifies the details of the customer where credit has been given against the purchase. Payment Gateway provides this screenshot with the transaction details to the acquiring bank for addressing copy request and chargeback requests.
  • Cancellation approval: If the Department determines that this transaction can be reversed to the cardholder account; Department initiates the refund transaction.
• Depending on the Department's response, the Payment Gateway responds to the acquiring bank the details regarding the copy request/ chargeback notice.
• All disputes shall be resolved according to the rules/ policies that are laid down by Visa/ Mastercard/ American Express/ Diners.
• For chargebacks that are received and debited by the acquiring bank, Payment Gateway intimates and passes on these chargebacks to the Department. The amount would be deducted in the Merchant TID report.