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PayTM, by far the biggest mobile payment platform in India, has taken this to a new level: traffic challan, or fines.
Paying for road infractions in India can be a laborious process, either dealt with somewhat opaquely on the spot with a note to an officer or through a time-consuming process of cash payments at clogged counters. Seeing an opportunity, PayTM has now devised an app through which people enter their vehicle number, verify the details and make a payment through their phone.
Curious, and having been surprised to learn that there are any traffic rules in India, Front End decided to look them up. ‘Letting an unlicensed fellow to drive’ carries an Rp1,000 ($15.60) fine. ‘Carrying people on footboard’ earns a Rp100 penalty. ‘Carrying people to the point that it causes inconvenience (be it for rearview visibility or gear shifting) to the driver’ means another Rp100 levy.
Fabulously, ‘Not driving in the proper lane’ carries a court challan, which is quite something, since in many decades of visiting India, Euromoney has never yet successfully identified that a lane, proper or otherwise, actually exists.