In the Reserve Bank of India (RBI's) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) address, Governor Shaktikanta Das has announced key initiatives with regards to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Ahead of the G20, Governor Das, on behalf of RBI has said that soon, the UPI will be extended for inbound travellers to India.
Briefing on the initiative, RBI Governor said that travellers from G20 will soon be able to use UPI for making payments or engaging in merchant transactions at select airports. While more details are yet to follow, Governor Das has also said that the extension of UPI for such facilities, is another important step for the Indian economy.
The official statement from RBI reads, "An enhancement has recently been made to provide UPI access to non-resident Indians who have international mobile numbers linked to their NRE / NRO accounts. It is now proposed to permit all inbound travellers to India also to access UPI for their merchant payments (P2M) while they are in the country. To start with, this facility will be extended to travellers from the G-20 countries, arriving at select international airports. Going forward, this facility will be enabled across all other entry points in the country. Necessary operational instructions will be issued shortly."
The announcement by the RBI Governor comes minutes after the MPC decided to hike its key lending rate, the repo rate by 25 bps to 6.50 per cent. Much alike to the market expectations, the repo rate has been hiked as inflation gradually eases.
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