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The Empuls Multi-Benefits Card is a single physical prepaid card carrying several category-specific benefit wallets — Meal & Grocery, Fuel & Car running, Telecom & Internet, Books & Periodicals, Gift, Learning & Development, and any custom wallet you enable. It lets you restructure existing CTC into tax-efficient wallets that employees spend directly, while every transaction stays compliant by design through Merchant Category Code (MCC) controls. The card carries a 5-year validity. New categories are added to an employee’s existing card as new MCC-locked wallets, so expanding what you offer never means re-issuing cards or running a fresh rollout.
Reach out through Contact Support to enable the Multi-Benefits Card for your organisation.
India only. The Multi-Benefits Card programme operates within India and is intended for eligible purchases in India. Outside India, Empuls offers the equivalent through wallet-restricted marketplace points on Plum.

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What makes it different

Most providers sell a card in isolation. With Empuls the card is one feature inside a wider benefits ecosystem, so you get flexibility across many offerings from a single platform without juggling vendors.

Part of the wider benefits programme

Multiple tax-saving and lifestyle wallets on one card and one dashboard, instead of several vendors operating in silos.

Health and wellness partnerships

Fitness and gym memberships, health check-ups, OPD, EAP and fitness challenges, connected to the same platform.

The wider rewards and recognition module

Enterprise recognition, surveys, and the Plum marketplace for rewarding employees.

One relationship, one experience

No dealing with multiple stakeholders and no switching tools between benefits, wellness and recognition.
Because the card, wellness and recognition share one ecosystem, HR and Finance manage allocation, spend tracking, compliance and engagement from a single Empuls admin portal.

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How the programme is structured

Empuls offers the Multi-Benefits Card as a co-branding partner of the Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) issuer, Transcorp International Limited, on the Visa payment network. Transcorp is authorised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to issue prepaid instruments and owns the regulated issuance, KYC and underlying wallet infrastructure. Xoxoday (Nreach Online Services Pvt. Ltd.) is the technology and co-branding partner that runs the employer and employee experience.

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Who does what

Empuls is the co-branding and technology partner, not the issuer and not the holder of funds. Transcorp International Limited is the RBI-authorised issuer of record for the card and the underlying wallet.

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Your organisation becomes a Corporate on the programme

When your organisation subscribes and extends the card to employees, it is onboarded as a Corporate on the co-branding partnership. On successful completion of KYB (Know Your Business), Transcorp creates a dedicated Virtual Account for your organisation.

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The Virtual Account and how funds move

  • The Virtual Account is a ring-fenced escrow account held with Transcorp. Under the RBI PPI Master Directions, non-bank PPI issuers must keep pooled customer money in an escrow account with a scheduled commercial bank.
  • You load money into this Virtual Account, then distribute funds to employees’ linked card wallets from the Empuls admin portal, and track them end to end.
  • Employees spend from their wallets on the Visa network, with each wallet locked to eligible MCCs so spend stays within the eligible category.

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What the RBI PPI framework means for you

  • A PPI is not a bank account. It holds pre-loaded funds for purchases, issued and regulated by Transcorp under RBI licence. Empuls does not hold employee funds.
  • Full-KYC PPI ceiling of ₹2,00,000. A full-KYC PPI can hold up to ₹2,00,000 at any point in time. This is the maximum balance a wallet can carry.
  • KYC via Video KYC (V-CIP). RBI-recognised, consent-based audio-visual verification against an Officially Valid Document enables full-KYC card status. The employee completes this in the Empuls app.
  • Once distributed is distributed. Funds credited to an employee wallet are the employee’s money. You cannot unilaterally pull them back — any reversal needs the employee’s explicit written consent and is only permitted under RBI-compliant PPI rules.
  • Interoperable on Visa. The card works across the Visa acceptance network for tap, swipe and online payments at eligible merchants.

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The wallets

A single physical card carries category wallets, each auto-enforcing the limit you set and its MCC rule in the background. Eligible spend needs no bills for MCC-restricted wallets — the transaction record itself is the audit evidence.
Only three wallets carry a hard statutory ceiling. Meal & Grocery, Fuel & Car running, and Gift are backed by specific Income-tax Rules with an explicit number attached — those are real caps, not product settings.Every other wallet (Telecom, Books & Periodicals, Learning & Development, and any custom wallet you enable) is exempt under open-ended provisions such as Section 10(14)(i) read with Rule 2BB — “exempt to the extent actually incurred for official duties”. There is no tax-law number to quote for these. The figure you set is a policy choice.When presenting these wallets to employees, say “your organisation has set this limit” rather than “the law caps this at ₹X”, and keep the amount reasonable and defensible for the wallet’s stated purpose. An exorbitant limit on an “actuals for official use” wallet is what invites scrutiny.

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Same CTC, more take-home

Restructuring taxable cash allowances into benefit wallets increases the tax-free portion of the package without increasing payroll cost. FY26 may map ₹2,75,600 in tax-free allowances across the wallet set below — up 121% on the ₹1,20,000 mapped in FY25, with Gift and Learning & Development newly added in FY26. This is illustrative. Actual savings vary by salary structure, tax regime and the Section caps in force.
Reference: KPMG GMS Flash Alerts 2026-051 and 2026-081; EY Alerts Hub, “Key Changes under the Income-tax Rules 2026” (March 2026).

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How MCC control works

Merchant acceptance runs on an Inclusion Architecture — an allow-list model, not a block-list. At swipe:
1

The terminal reports its MCC

Every payment terminal identifies itself with a Merchant Category Code.
2

The wallet checks that MCC

The wallet compares the reported MCC against its own allow-list, and checks the remaining balance.
3

Approve only on a match

The transaction is approved only if the MCC is on the list. Otherwise it is declined outright.
This is why alcohol is excluded from the Meal wallet by design: MCC 5921 (liquor) is never on that wallet’s allow-list, so the transaction never reaches approval. It is also how mixed-category retailers are handled correctly. A supermarket like D’Mart runs separate billing counters per category — groceries carry a different MCC to home appliances or an in-store liquor counter, and it is the merchant’s responsibility to bill each section under its correct MCC. A quick-commerce app like Swiggy Instamart runs alcohol as a fully separate order flow rather than mixing it into a grocery cart. The card simply reflects whichever MCC the terminal or order flow actually reports.

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What happens at financial year-end

This differs by wallet — do not tell employees they all behave the same.
  • Meal & Grocery is a perquisite: no expiry, stays tax-exempt, and carries forward automatically into the next financial year.
  • Fuel & Car running, and every other wallet: any unspent balance becomes taxable once the financial year ends.
  • Any wallet, at any time: transferring a balance out to a bank account on request makes that amount taxable at that point, regardless of which wallet it came from.

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What happens if an employee leaves

All funds already credited to an employee’s wallet are part of their CTC, so they cannot be unilaterally pulled back by the employer.A pullback to the employer’s Virtual Account is only allowed if the employee gives explicit consent over email — retain that consent as the record.If a balance is transferred directly to the employee’s bank account, with or without an exit, it becomes taxable at that point. The cash-out appears in the tax report, and you are responsible for reflecting it in your own payroll tax input.

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Where responsibility sits if a wallet is misused

Your duty ends with giving the employee prior notice of a wallet’s tax-saving nature and intended use. From that point compliance is the employee’s responsibility — including edge cases such as a multi-category seller mistakenly billing an ineligible item under an eligible MCC. This is consistent with the Gujarat High Court’s ruling that an employer cannot be fastened with a TDS shortfall under Section 192 on a mere presumption that “some employees” misused meal coupons; the department must first show employee-specific misuse. Read the case commentary.

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Compliant by design

  • MCC-restricted wallets, KYC-checked cards, and employer-funded loads.
  • Escrow-backed Virtual Account and full audit trails — merchant, MCC, value, date, wallet — available for income-tax scrutiny or internal audit.

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Fits your finance stack

  • HRMS-assisted beneficiary onboarding and bulk fund distribution. Empuls integrates with 25+ HR applications including Workday for employee synchronisation.
  • Payroll integration (SAP, Tally, Zoho and others) is available on demand and set up per requirement. It is not enabled by default.
User sync is automated, but adding a new person as a Multi-Benefits Card beneficiary is still a manual step today, because it involves placing a physical card order. Large organisations can batch this into a predictable monthly cycle.
Future capability. RFID access-fob use is not enabled on live programmes today, and can be considered on bulk request.

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How it works: the four-step process

1

KYB and legal (employer)

Your organisation is created as a Corporate and the authorised signatory receives a KYB link.Complete KYB in the onboarding portal: PAN, GST, CIN, director verification (auto-fetched from MCA), bank verification, and document upload — Board Resolution, AOA/MOA, COI, registered-office proof.The signing authority completes Aadhaar-based KYC and e-signs the Funding Agreement. On completion, Transcorp creates your ring-fenced Virtual Account, typically within a few working days.
2

Load and card issuance (employer)

Physical card kits are personalised with the employee’s name and couriered to employees or to your office.Load money into the Virtual Account, then distribute wallet amounts to employees from the admin portal against the enabled categories, with MCC controls and limits applied per wallet. Loads can be done individually or in bulk.New wallet categories can be added to an employee’s existing card at any point — no re-issuance needed.
3

Spend, control and track (employee)

The employee completes Video KYC to activate the card, then sets a PIN.They can swipe, tap or transact online within the controlled MCCs; lock, unlock, block and request replacement; enable or disable POS, tap-and-pay and e-commerce and set limits for each; and track spends and download balance statements — all in the Empuls app.
4

Track and comply (employer)

Track employee spends and wallet balances across the organisation. Wallet usage and unused balance are visible in real time on the admin portal as your adoption metrics.Load further funds as needed, reconcile, and generate payroll-ready tax-benefit inputs backed by audit trails.

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Before you start

  • You must be a Super Admin to access the Tax benefits dashboard.
  • The Empuls team confirms the Multi-Benefits programme is enabled for your organisation.
  • KYB must be complete and the Virtual Account live.
  • Have your employee list and delivery addresses ready, and decide which wallet categories and limits apply to which cohort — by band, location, or department.

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The Tax benefits dashboard

Go to Benefits → Tax benefits in the admin portal. This is your starting point for everything below.
Tax benefits dashboard with org balance, Allocate fund and Add funds buttons
The dashboard shows:
  • Org account balance — total funds held in the Virtual Account and the amount currently available for allocation, in INR.
  • Action buttons — Allocate fund opens the allocation wizard, + Add funds shows the bank-transfer details for topping up, and the popover beside the balance links to the Account statement.
  • Benefits Program summary cards — Total allocated, Total utilized, Unused balance, and Beneficiaries. Each navigates to its detail page.
  • Unused balance with users — one card per active wallet showing the unused balance, so you can see at a glance where money is sitting.

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Add funds to the Virtual Account

1

Click + Add funds

On the Tax benefits dashboard, click + Add funds next to the account balance. A modal opens with the bank account details for your organisation’s Virtual Account.
2

Copy the bank details

Use the copy icon next to each field to pass the values to your finance team.
3

Initiate the transfer

Send funds from your corporate bank account using IMPS, NEFT or RTGS, following the transfer rules listed in the modal.
Reflection is not instant. A transfer into the Virtual Account can take a few hours, and up to 1–2 working days, to appear in the portal. Do not promise employees same-moment crediting.If the amount has not reflected after that window, re-check the corporate balance and then reach out through Contact Support. The Empuls team raises a flag for manual validation with Transcorp to confirm the credit.

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Onboard beneficiaries

Beneficiaries are the employees who receive a card. Add them after your HRMS or employee sync has run.
1

Open the Beneficiaries page

From the Tax benefits dashboard, open Beneficiaries, then click + Add beneficiary.
Beneficiaries page listing employees with KYC pending or Active card status
2

Choose how to select employees

Paste data (filter-based) — build a condition from department, designation, grade, location, business unit, cost center, or individual users. The picker supports multi-select search, so you can combine several criteria into one rule.Upload CSV — download the sample CSV, fill in employee identifiers, and upload it.
3

Review validation

Empuls validates in a background job and reports a success count of rows ready to add, and an error count with a downloadable report so you can fix and re-upload.
4

Confirm and submit

Click Confirm to enrol the validated beneficiaries. A progress bar tracks submission, and the final screen shows how many were added.
Each beneficiary’s card status starts at KYC pending, as shown in the screenshot above. The employee must complete Video KYC in the Empuls app before the card becomes Active and accepts transactions.

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What happens next

Card kits are ordered, personalised with the employee’s name, and couriered to your office or the employee’s home address. Employees then activate the card themselves in the Empuls app.

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Allocate funds to beneficiaries

1

Confirm the Virtual Account balance

Check the available balance on the Tax benefits dashboard, then click Allocate fund.
2

Choose the benefit

Select which wallet you are funding — for example Food Allowance, Telecom Allowance or Fuel Allowance. You allocate to one wallet per upload.
Allocate funds dialog with benefit wallet options and CSV upload area
3

Upload the allocation CSV

Click Download Template for the sample file. It takes two columns, Email and Amount — one row per beneficiary. Only CSV files are accepted. Upload it with Browse file, then click Continue.
4

Review validation results

Empuls validates each row in the background and groups the results:
  • Success — rows ready to disburse.
  • Warning — rows that disburse with caveats, such as a partial allocation because a category cap was reached.
  • Invalid — rows that fail, for an unknown email, a disabled user, or an invalid category. Download the corrected file, fix it, and re-upload.
5

Confirm and disburse

Click Confirm. A progress bar tracks disbursement, and the final summary shows how many users were credited, how many were skipped because the account is disabled, and any failures with a downloadable report.
Background jobs poll every 5 seconds and time out after 15 minutes. If you close the browser, the wizard remembers the in-progress job in the URL and can resume.

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Reporting and statements

Detailed transaction-level audit trails — merchant, MCC, value, date, wallet — are available on demand for tax scrutiny or internal audit.

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Important things admins should know

  • Once distributed is distributed. Funds credited to an employee wallet are the employee’s money under the PPI framework. A pullback is possible only with the employee’s explicit written email consent — retain it as the record.
  • Fund reflection is not instant. Transfers into the Virtual Account can take up to 1–2 working days.
  • Employment matters stay with you. Eligibility, allocation amounts, category limits, reimbursement claims and the treatment of balances on exit are strictly between your organisation and the employee. Neither Empuls nor Transcorp is a party to the employment arrangement.
  • Only three wallets have a statutory limit. Meal & Grocery, Fuel & Car running and Gift are law-backed. Every other figure is your own policy choice — keep it reasonable and defensible.
  • Reimbursement genuineness. For reimbursement-model wallets, employees must upload genuine, original, unaltered bills. Verification and any action on suspected fraud are carried out by your organisation per its policy.
  • Audit-ready by design. MCC-restricted spend needs no bills for those wallets.
  • Fees. A one-time issuance fee and courier charges apply, with courier passed to the client, and an employer-side load fee applies when funding the Virtual Account. There is no annual maintenance fee. Confirm current figures against the prevailing fee schedule.
  • Video KYC. Each employee gets one free Video KYC. Any additional Video KYC may attract a nominal charge, borne by the employer as per policy.
  • Escalation path. If a grievance raised with the issuer remains unresolved for 30 days, the employee may escalate it to the Reserve Bank of India under the RBI Integrated Ombudsman Scheme. Make sure employees know this route exists.

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FAQs

Yes — ₹2,00,000, the RBI full-KYC PPI ceiling. A wallet cannot hold more than this at any point in time.
No, only three are. Meal & Grocery (₹200/meal), Fuel & Car running, and Gift (₹15,000/yr) are backed by specific tax rules with an explicit number. Every other wallet’s limit — Telecom, Books & Periodicals, Learning & Development, and any custom wallet — is an amount you choose, not a ceiling set by tax law.
It depends on the wallet. Meal & Grocery never expires and carries forward automatically, staying tax-exempt. Fuel & Car running and all other wallets are different: any unspent balance becomes taxable once the financial year ends. Moving money out to a bank account makes it taxable at that point, whichever wallet it came from.
Not unilaterally. Funds already credited are part of the employee’s CTC. A pullback to your Virtual Account is only permitted with the employee’s explicit consent over email. If the balance is paid out to their bank account instead, it becomes taxable at that point and appears in the tax report, and you are responsible for reflecting it in payroll.
Yes for the grocery and food section, no for anything else. At swipe, the terminal’s MCC is checked against the Meal wallet’s allow-list. A supermarket runs separate billing counters per category, so the card is accepted at the grocery counter and declined at the others. Alcohol MCCs such as 5921 are never on the Meal wallet’s allow-list, so those transactions are never approved regardless of the store.
A transaction is declined if the merchant’s category does not match the wallet (MCC mismatch), the wallet balance is insufficient, the card is locked, a spend or transaction-count limit was exceeded, the maximum wallet balance is reached, or the required mode such as e-commerce or contactless is disabled. Declined transactions and their reasons appear on the Transaction decline sub-page within Category details.
No. The programme issues a single physical card with a 5-year validity. Online payments use the card details available in the app under View Card Details.
For Empuls platform, wallet-structure or benefits-programme issues, use in-app support or raise a request through Contact Support. For card issuance, individual transactions, settlements, statements or KYC, contact Transcorp at cards@transcorpint.com or +91 75971 82222. If a grievance raised with the issuer is unresolved after 30 days, it can be escalated to the RBI under the Integrated Ombudsman Scheme.
Not tax or legal advice. Tax treatment of employee benefits depends on the employee’s regime, CTC structure, employment terms, your payroll methodology and the rules in force at the time of filing. Empuls is a benefits-technology platform and does not provide tax, legal or financial advice. The card is issued by Transcorp International Limited, an RBI-authorised PPI issuer. In case of any conflict, the executed Terms & Conditions and the issuer terms prevail.

Using your Multi-Benefits Card

The employee-facing guide: activation, Video KYC, PIN, limits and tracking spends.

Benefits FAQs

Common questions across the benefits programme.

Redemption wallets

The separate wallet that funds reward redemptions.

Manage employees

Add the employees you will enrol as beneficiaries.