India will soon make Unified Payment Interface, or UPI, available worldwide. Ten countries are now participating in this initiative. If this occurs, Indians residing in these nations can use their overseas mobile numbers to make UPI payments.

 

Additionally, NRIs, or Overseas Indians, from these ten nations can utilize the UPI service to conduct transactions without depending on their Indian phone number.

 

Singapore, the United States, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom are the ten countries where this project is being introduced. The National Payments Corporation of India claims that accounts with international mobile numbers, such as NRE/NRO, can conduct transactions utilizing UPI. Partner banks have been issued instructions by Payments Corporation and have until April 30 to comply with them.

 

NRI and NRO account holders can do transactions.

NRIs can transfer profits abroad to India with the help of an NRI account. Likewise, they can handle their income from India with the help of an NRO account. There is, however, a requirement that the banks make sure such accounts have been approved under the Foreign Exchange Management Act's provisions.

 

The Reserve Bank of India's standards must also be adhered to, as must security measures against money laundering and terrorist financing.

 

UPI transactions worth 12 lakh crores occurred in December.

To promote RuPay debit cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions, a cabinet committee led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday authorized a total program worth Rs 2600 crores. Officials claim that families living abroad, international students, and local companies will get help from this initiative.

 

Under this program, banks would also receive financial incentives to encourage RuPay and UPI transactions. In this regard, Prime Minister Modi stated in a tweet that the Cabinet's decision to support the RuPay Debit Card and BHIM-UPI transactions would further boost India's advancements in digital payments.

 

In just six years, there has been a significant increase in UPI transactions. For example, in December of the previous year, UPI transactions of more than Rs 12 lakh crore were made.