The maximum value of these pre-paid payment instruments cannot exceed INR 50,000 with a minimum validity of six months from the date of activation or issuance to the holder.
Banks that comply with the eligibility criteria are authorized to issue three kinds of pre-paid payment instruments and Non-Banking Financial Companies (“NBFC”) and other persons have been authorized to issue only semi-closed system payment instruments. This infers that the issuer of a pre-payment instrument needs to be either a bank, NBFC or a ‘person’. Therefore Bitcoin issued by the software cannot be classified as pre-paid instruments since a server or software cannot be termed as a ‘person’