The Reserve Bank has announced new changes in the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) transaction in the New Year.
The new policy change is being introduced with an aim to further encourage UPI transactions.
An important note is that IDs and numbers that are not used for more than a year will be deactivated. ‘News 18’ reported that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has given instructions regarding this to applications including Google Pay, PhonePay and Paytm. Along with this, an interchange fee has been imposed on UPI transactions in business establishments. Transactions above Rs 2,000 through systems such as online wallets and Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPI) will be charged a fee of 1.1% from now on.
Earlier, the daily limit for cash transactions was sharply increased. The limit has been raised from one lakh to five lakh. This benefit will be availed on transactions for hospital and educational purposes. NPCI announced this change last December 8.
Certain restrictions are also imposed on the first transaction with a user who has not yet had a transaction relationship. If the first transaction is above Rs 2,000, the UPI payment will be restricted for the next four hours. NPCI explains that this kind of restriction is being imposed as a precautionary measure against the backdrop of increasing cases of online payment fraud.
The tap and pay feature will soon be available to all UPI users. There is another good news for the users. These are UPI ATMs to be implemented across the country. It is reported that the ATM system that can scan the QR code and withdraw money will soon be available across India. RBI is bringing such a system in collaboration with the Japanese company Hitachi.
UPI is currently the most popular payment system in the country, facilitating easy mobile payments. According to reports, UPI transactions are increasing every year. Last August, UPI also crossed the important milestone of 10 billion transactions.
