UPI For Foreign Travellers To India Allowed By RBI: Know How It Will Work

The Reserve Bank of India has proposed to permit overseas vacationers to make service provider funds whereas in India by way of Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

UPI is a system that powers a number of financial institution accounts right into a single cell utility (of any taking part financial institution), merging a number of banking options, seamless fund routing and service provider funds into one hood.

Experts really feel that India’s UPI is among the most profitable digital funds programs globally. Therefore, the extension of its providers to residents of G20 international locations will foster India’s relationship with these nations for future collaborations.

Rajsri Rengan, head of banking and funds, India and Philippines, FIS, stated that it is a nice transfer to scale up using digital funds in India in addition to enhance their fee expertise.

Also Read: PhonePe Allows International UPI Transactions; First Indian Fintech To Have This Facility

It has been determined to permit entry to UPI to overseas nationals and NRIs visiting India. To begin with, this facility is prolonged to travellers from the G-20 international locations at choose worldwide airports for his or her service provider funds (P2M) whereas they’re within the nation.

RBI stated that going ahead, this shall be enabled throughout all entry factors within the nation.

Swapnil Jambhale, co-founder and COO, Safexpay, stated that the transfer comes at a strategic level after saying the UPI facility for NRI with NRE and NRO accounts linked with their cell numbers.

“This step will end up to strengthen India’s place because the funds chief within the international market. In-bound travellers from G20 international locations will be capable of expertise UPI funds whereas transacting with completely different retailers. Once these travellers arrive in India, they’ll be capable of avail the power by complying with the required process set by RBI on the airports and choose entry factors,” Jambhale added.

How will it work?

• Banks/Non-banks permitted to issue Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) can issue INR denominated full-KYC PPIs to foreign nationals NRIs visiting India
• Such PPIs can also be issued in co-branding arrangement with entities authorised to deal in Foreign Exchange under FEMA
• The PPIs shall be issued after physical verification of Passport and Visa of the customers at the point of issuance
• The PPI issuers shall ensure that such information and record thereof are maintained with them
• The PPIs can be issued in the form of wallets linked to UPI and can be used for merchant payments (P2M) only
• Loading / Reloading of such PPIs shall be against receipt of foreign exchange by cash or through any payment instrument
• The conversion to Indian Rupee shall be carried out only by entities authorised to deal in Foreign Exchange under FEMA
• The amount outstanding at any point of time in such PPIs shall not exceed the limit applicable on full-KYC PPIs
• The unutilised balances in such PPIs can be encashed in foreign currency or transferred ‘back to source’ (payment source from where the PPI was loaded), in compliance with foreign exchange regulations

What is G20?

The Group of 20 (G20) is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s major developed and developing economies.

It 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).

Meanwhile, payment transactions through UPI rose 1.3 per cent on-month to a high of nearly Rs 13 lakh crore in January 2023.

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