The National Payments Corporation on Wednesday said it has received the RBI's permission to route merchant payments and transactions initiated through ATMs and Internet via its interbank mobile payment service (IMPS), the user base of which has crossed the 10-million mark.

With this, utility bills, shopping bills, fees, and even donations can be made through this channel, National Payment Corporation of India (NCPI) managing director and chief executive AP Hota said in a statement.

Hota further said the number of bank customers registered for interbank mobile payment service (IMPS) has also crossed the 10 million mark as of yesterday.

The NCPI is the umbrella body of all retail payment systems in the country and is promoted by the banks with support from RBI.

Recently, it developed a common payment card after being asked by the central bank, called Rupay that would replace Visa and MasterCard. The Rupay will be formally launched very soon.

"Though the number is very small considering the large base of 350 million account holders, the trend is encouraging.

So far, 20 major banks joined this service and testing and certification is in progress for nearly 15 banks," Hota said.

As on May 3, these 20 banks issued over 10 million mobile money identifications (MMIDs) to registered customers. The number is expected to go up as banks start their publicity campaign and more banks join the IMPS system, he added.

NPCI is hopeful that given the utility of the new payment service usage, which operates on a round the clock basis, money transfer in real-time would gain momentum in the coming months.

The MMID is a seven-digit number, which when used in combination with the customer's mobile number, would uniquely identify a bank account number.

A person having multiple bank accounts would have multiple MMIDs tagged with the same mobile number, he said, adding at present, the service is limited to person-to-person payments only.