Visitors to India will have access to UPI or Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to shop in the country, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) chief Shaktikanta Das announced today.
Only visitors from G-20 countries will be allowed to make UPI payments to start with, and only those arriving at certain airports.
"UPI has become hugely popular for retail digital payments in India. It is now proposed to permit all inbound travellers to India to use UPI for their merchant payments (P2M) while they are in the country. To begin with, this facility will be extended to travellers from G-20 countries arriving at select international airports," Mr Das said.
With India holding G-20 presidency till November, foreign delegates have been invited to multiple events in the country.
UPI is a popular instrument for electronic payments in India. In the past six years, there has been a massive jump in UPI transactions. In December, UPI transactions touched a record high of Rs 12.82 lakh crore.
Last month, the government announced that Indians in other countries would be able to access UPI using their international mobile numbers.
Indians overseas will be able to make UPI payments by April 30.
Non Resident Indians (NRIs) in 10 countries can access UPI services for transactions without having to depend on their India phone number. The countries are Singapore, US, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and UK.
According to the National Payments Corporation of India, accounts like NRE/NRO (Non Resident External and Non resident Ordinary) with international mobile numbers can transact using UPI.
An NRE account helps NRIs transfer foreign earnings to India, while an NRO account helps them manage the income earned in India.
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