UPI: The Reserve Bank of India has announced that all international travellers visiting India will be able to make local payments using Unified Payments Interface (UPI) while they are in the country.
“Travellers visiting India can now experience the convenience of UPI payments at over five crore merchant outlets across India, that accept QR Code-based UPI payments”, the RBI statement read.
This facility was 1st provided to travellers from G-20 nations. According to the statement, the facility is available to the travellers from G-20 nations at select international airports of New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The G20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US, and the European Union (EU).
Foreigners can use UPI: How does this work?
The travellers will be issued prepaid payment instruments (PPI) wallets which will be linked to UPI for making payments. The UPI-linked wallets will be issued by private lenders ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank along with two non-bank PPI issuers named Pine Labs Private Limited and Transcorp International Limited.
What are prepaid payment instruments?
PPIs are instruments that facilitate purchase of goods and services, conduct of financial services, enable remittance facilities, etc., against the value stored therein. Prepaid payment instruments’ examples include smart cards, online accounts, online wallets, stripe cards, paper vouchers, etc. The primary objective of these instruments is to get access to the amount already prepaid. So, one can purchase the required goods without any physical exchange of cash or card. PPI have amount limits such as Rs.10,000, Rs.20,000, etc. Customers can use the PPI till the maximum amount limit.
UPI International Countries
Indian digital payment systems are available in Singapore, UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, France, BENELUX markets – Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg – and Switzerland, among others. It is also understood that India has signed MoUs with 13 countries that want to adopt the UPI interface for digital payments.
PhonePe
PhonePe, Indian digital payments and financial technology company, has launched support for cross-border UPI payments, under UPI International. The apps’ users can now use their Indian bank accounts to pay at merchant outlets in the UAE, Singapore, Mauritius, Nepal and Bhutan. According to PhonePe, users would now be able to make payments in foreign currencies directly from their bank accounts, similar to international debit cards.
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