E-commerce platform Amazon has announced that it will no longer offer monthly Prime membership in India. The company will now be offering only three-month and annual Prime membership benefits. The starting pack has been removed to adhere to the new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) mandate. The deadline for implementation of this new mandate has been set for September 30.

The company said that since April 27, Amazon has also temporarily discontinued new member sign-ups for Amazon Prime free trial as well. It also cancelled new member sign-ups for Monthly Prime Membership. While the cost of Amazon Prime Subscription starts at Rs 129 per month, the three-month and annual subscriptions cost Rs 329 and Rs 999 respectively.

The new RBI mandate requires banks and financial institutions to implement an additional factor of authentication (AFA) in order to process recurring online transactions. In this regard, Amazon has updated its support page stating that effective April 1 2021, banks may not be able to process any new requests for automated payments on your credit/debit cards.

However, they can “continue enjoying Prime membership benefits by renewing/signing up for the Three Month or Annual Prime Membership," the company added.

As per RBI guidelines, transactions up to Rs 5,000 will require AFA authentication. The initial deadline for the framework implementation was August 2019. But it was extended to September 30, 2021.