The Reserve Bank of India on February 8th 2023 declared that travellers visiting India will soon be able to avail of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) facility for digital retail payments in the country, as per recent reports.
“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 announced on Wednesday while stating the outcome of the bi-monthly Monetary Policy Committee.
Travellers visiting from G20 countries and arriving at select international airports will be able to use UPI. The following countries comprise the G20 group: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, US, and the European Union.
“The RBI’s announcement around extending the 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,” said Rajsri Rengan, Head of Banking and Payments, India and Philippines, FIS – a fintech firm.
The central bank in the Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies on Wednesday said, “Going forward, this facility will be enabled across all other entry points in the country. Necessary operational information will be issued shortly.”
