Paytm Chief Vijay Shekhar seeks PLI scheme for payment segment devices

Fintech company One97 Communications, which operates under the Paytm brand, wants the government to bring payment segment devices under the production-linked incentive scheme to boost local production, a top company official said on Monday.

Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said the company has started manufacturing soundbox devices in India even though local production attracts higher taxes compared to imported ones.

While announcing the launch of two new models of payment soundboxes, Sharma said that India is a services-dominated country and there is a need to go towards manufacturing for job creation.

Making software in India and importing devices from China to operate — it is depriving the country of full advantage of the technology, he added.

“Paytm soundboxes are completely made in India. We have done indigenisation of soundboxes. As we all know, we are under pressure from one new thing. When soundboxes come from overseas, duty is not levied on them but we are required to pay duties. My request to the government is to declare PLI on payment equipment,” Sharma said.

The company launched Paytm Pocket Soundbox and Paytm Music Soundbox for merchants.

Merchants using Soundbox get to hear about payment alerts when they receive money. With the new music soundbox, they will be able to connect their phone to the device and listen to music as well.

“My imagination is that there should be 4-5 crore soundboxes installed in the next 3-5 years in this country,” Gupta said.

As of June 30, 2023, the company had a subscription base of over 79 lakh merchants for Paytm payment devices like soundboxes and card machines.