Revolutionizing the way people make payments in the country, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become one of the top choices when it comes to payment modes in India. Since its launch, the use case of UPI has grown exponentially as a convenient tool to quickly make payments. To make UPI even safer, more secure and user-friendly, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to implement some new rules and changes starting from January 1, 2024.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has asked payment apps such as Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe, etc. and banks to deactivate the UPI IDs and numbers that haven’t been active for over a year.
NPCI has established a maximum limit of Rs 1 lakh for funds transferred between UPI accounts. However, the RBI on December 8 increased the UPI transaction limit for education and healthcare facilities to Rs 5 lakh.
There will also be a 1.1 per cent interchange fee for specific merchant UPI transactions above Rs 2,000, made using prepaid payment instruments (PPI) like online wallets.
To tackle online frauds, RBI has implemented a four-hour waiting period between consecutive transactions among individuals that haven’t transacted before. UPI members will be able to make use of the UPI ‘Tap and Pay' functionality soon.
Additionally, RBI will collaborate with Japanese company Hitachi to roll out UPI ATMs where one will be able to withdraw cash only with the help of a QR code.
In August 2023, UPI marked a significant achievement by completing 10 billion transactions. According to a top official at the National Payments Corporation of India, the country has the capacity to process 100 billion UPI transactions every month.
