NRIs will soon be able to do UPI payments without an Indian mobile number — Here's how

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has asked the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ecosystem to allow users from some countries with non-resident account types like non-resident external (NRE) and non-resident ordinary (NRO) accounts with international mobile numbers to transact through UPI. In simple words, this means that non-resident Indians (NRIs) will soon be able to make payments in UPI without having to get an Indian mobile number.

An NRE account is a bank account opened in India in the name of an NRI, to park his foreign earnings whereas, an NRO account is a bank account opened in India in the name of an NRI to manage the income earned by him/her in India. These incomes include rent, dividend, pension, interest, etc.

As of now, the NPCI will be enabling transactions from mobile numbers having country codes of Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, the US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and the UK, along with the current domestic country code, it said in a circular.

"The member banks have to ensure that these accounts are only allowed as per extant Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) regulations and adhere to the guidelines issued by the concerned regulatory departments of RBI from time to time," NPCI said.

It also said that all necessary anti-money laundering or combating of financing of terrorism checks and compliance validation as per the rules have to be ensured.

The UPI ecosystem members have to comply with NPCI's directions by April 30, 2023.

Commenting on the same, Mudit Vijayvergiya, Founder at SBNRI said that UPI has overtaken net banking and card transactions in India in the last 6+ years, . Among Resident Indians (RIs), it is the most preferred transaction method for Peer-to-Peer (P2P) and offline POS & online transactions.

"Till now, any RI with an Indian contact number and bank account could generate their UPI ID and start transacting from 100+ apps available in the ecosystem. After NPCI's new circular, NRIs will be able to generate their UPI ID with an international number and their NRO/ NRE account. NRIs who were dependent on cards/ cash while in India, can now seamlessly pay at restaurants, do P2P transfers and invest via UPI," he said.

Meanwhile, payments through UPI touched a record high of Rs 12.82 lakh crore in December. During the month, 782 crore transactions in volume terms were done on the platform, which was launched in 2016. Payments through UPI had crossed the Rs 12 lakh crore mark in October this year.

In November, as many as 730.9 crore transactions worth Rs 11.90 lakh crore had taken place via UPI.

UPI is an instant real-time payment system which facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions. The transaction is done through mobile in easy steps. Besides, there are no charges applicable for UPI transactions. The inexpensive medium for cashless transactions has been gaining traction month-on-month and 381 banks are live on it.