UPI payment extended to travellers coming from G-20 countries to India, says RBI

“UPI has become hugely popular for retail digital payments in India. It is now proposed to permit all inbound travellers to India to use UPI for their merchant payments (P2M) while they are in the country,” RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said while announcing the outcome of the bi-monthly Monetary Policy Committee on Wednesday.

To start with, this UPI facility will be extended to travellers from G-20 countries arriving at select international airports, Das added. The Group of Twenty (G-20) comprises 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, United Kingdom and United States) and the European Union.

Commenting on this development, Rajsri Rengan, Head of Banking and Payments, India and Philippines, FIS, a fintech company, said, “The RBI’s announcement around extending UPI facility for inbound travellers to India is a great initiative. Customers coming to India will now be able to use UPI while carrying out P2M transactions. This is a great move to scale up the use of digital payments in India as well as improve their payment experience.”

“Going forward, this facility will be enabled across all other entry points in the country. Necessary operational instructions will be issued shortly,” the central bank said in the Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies on February 8, 2023.

“UPI has become a ubiquitous payment instrument for retail electronic payments in India. An enhancement has recently been made to provide UPI access to non-resident Indians who have international mobile numbers linked to their NRE / NRO accounts,” the central bank noted.

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Last month, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) allowed UPI platforms to onboard non-resident accountholders (NRE/NRO accounts) from 10 countries with international mobile numbers with certain conditions. Non-resident Indians (NRIs) with NRE or NRO accounts in these 10 countries don’t need to have Indian mobile numbers to use UPI in India. They will soon be able to use Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platforms with their international mobile numbers.To start with, the NPCI will enable transactions from mobile numbers having country codes of Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, USA, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom, along with the current domestic country code, as per an NPCI circular released on January 10, 2023.

RBI will also launch a pilot project on QR Code based Coin Vending Machine (QCVM) in 12 cities in the country. “These vending machines will dispense coins against debit to the customer’s account using UPI instead of physical tendering of banknotes. This will enhance the ease of accessibility to coins,” Das announced.