Corporate, meal & salary cards for HR teams
Corporate meal, fuel, incentive and salary wallets sit at the junction of PPI rules and income-tax perquisite rules. Get the tax treatment wrong and you mislead employees — here's the plain-language picture with worked examples.
Meal cards & tax savings
Meal cards (Pluxee, Sodexo and similar) let employees pay for food at a defined merchant set. The tax benefit exists because meal vouchers are treated as a perquisite under income-tax rules — but the exemption is conditional and capped by the current Finance Act. It is not an automatic "save tax with meal card" slogan.
Worked example: if the exempt meal perquisite for the financial year is ₹X and your employee's meal card value is within that cap, the value stays out of taxable salary. Above the cap, the excess is taxable. The numbers change year to year — always check the current Finance Act text.
Don't copy 2023 articles. Tax treatment of meal, fuel and gift perquisites changes. Verify the current rules before advising employees.
Corporate prepaid cards at a glance
| Card type | What it does | PPI + tax junction |
|---|---|---|
| Meal card | Employee pays for food at a defined merchant set. | PPI (semi-closed) + meal perquisite exemption under current Finance Act. |
| Fuel card | Official-use fuel for field teams; category-locked to fuel merchants. | PPI + official-use perquisite treatment; personal use can be taxable. |
| Incentive / gift wallet | Rewards, bonuses and gifts loaded as stored value. | PPI + gifts exempt up to ₹15,000/year; other incentive value generally taxable. |
| Salary / payroll card | Wages loaded onto a prepaid card for gig, contractual or unbanked workers. | PPI (Full-KYC or Small) — not a savings account; RBI limits and KYC apply. |
Salary & payroll cards: the honest caveats
Payroll cards are convenient for teams without bank accounts, but they are PPIs, not savings accounts. That means: outstanding value is capped (₹2 lakh for Full-KYC, ₹10,000 for Small), it is not DICGC-insured, and employees may face dormancy or ATM fees. Under the 2026 framework, only one Full-KYC PPI per holder is allowed — payroll programs must respect that.
For HR teams we recommend comparing a payroll card against paying wages into a basic savings account (BSBD) or a UPI-linked account. See our comparison page for the side-by-side.
Corporate card FAQs
It depends on the perquisite exemption in force and the employee's tax slab. A meal card can keep the value out of taxable salary within the cap; reimbursement may be taxable. Compare both with a tax professional.
No. A payroll card is stored value under RBI rules — capped, not insured, and with fees. It is a payment tool, not a savings product. Employees should ideally also have a bank account.
Banks (with intimation) and authorised non-bank PPI players. Meal and incentive programs are typically run by authorised non-banks under the net-worth path. Verify the issuer's RBI authorisation before enrolling.