PremiumNon Resident Indians (NRIs) will soon be able to make payments in Unified Payments Interface (UPI) without having to get an Indian mobile number. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has allowed NRIs in 10 countries to digitally transfer funds using the UPI platform from NRE/NRO accounts.
NRIs with NRE (non-resident external) or NRO (non-resident ordinary) accounts in 10 countries can access UPI services for transactions using their international mobile numbers.
The NPCI said it has been receiving requests for allowing non-residents to use international mobile numbers for transacting in UPI.
Accordingly, the NPCI has given partner banks time till 30 April to comply with the directions under which non-residents having NRE/NRO accounts will be allowed to transfer funds using their international mobile numbers.
To begin with, NPCI will be enabling 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.
The NPCI, which operates the UPI platform, stated: "To begin with, we shall be enabling transaction from mobile numbers having the country code of (10 nations)... and shall extend for other country codes in near future...".
This facility may be extended to other country codes in future.
The only conditions are that the partner banks ensure such accounts are allowed according to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) regulations, follow the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from time to time.
Also, all necessary anti-money laundering or combating of financing of terrorism checks and compliance validation according to the rules have to be ensured by the remitter and beneficiary banks.
An NRE account helps NRIs transfer foreign earnings to India, while an NRO account helps them manage the income earned in India.
The development will help international students, family living abroad and local businesses, officials have said.
Payments Council of India Chairman Vishwas Patel said the major convenience factor would be in the form of 'payment/money transfer convenience' for NRIs when they visit India.
Sarvatra Technologies Founder MD Mandar Agashe said all these years, NRIs couldn’t access the UPI network since SIM binding, which is an important security feature of UPI, was available only to Indian SIM card phones.
"NRIs will just need to link their NRE and NRO accounts linked to their international SIM to UPI and use it like any ox`ther Indian UPI user for merchant payment as well as peer-to-peer payments," Agashe stated.
UPI is an instant real-time payment system, which is now processing more peer-to-merchant (P2M) transactions than peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions, in volume terms. The transaction is done through mobile in easy steps. Besides, there are no charges applicable for UPI transactions.
UPI was earlier mostly used for P2P transactions. However, the trend has reversed in the last two years since the Covid-related restrictions. Now, it is the most preferred payment mode for P2M transactions.
The inexpensive medium for cashless transactions has been gaining traction month-on-month and 381 banks are live on it.
There has been a massive jump in UPI payments in just six years. UPI transactions touched a record high of ₹12.82 lakh crore in December 2022.
In November last year, around 730.9 crore transactions worth ₹11.90 lakh crore had taken place through UPI.
