These UPI Transactions Set To Be Blocked By NPCI From Feb. 1—Will It Hit You? Find Out
Users should note that some UPI transactions are in danger of being blocked by NPCI from the next month. It all has to do with what is in the UPI transaction ID.
National Payments Corporation India or NPCI on Tuesday has released a statement about Unified Payments Interface transactions that will affect some users. Will you be hit by the move? Know why some UPI transactions are going to be blocked by NPCI within days and whether you will be hit by the move.
NPCI, an initiative of the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Banks' Association, is an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India. NPCI runs the UPI used for real-time payments between peers or at merchants' end while making purchases.
NPCI has revealed that UPI transaction IDs containing special characters shall be blocked or declined by the central system effective Feb. 1.
"Reference may be taken from our OC 193 dated March 28, 2024 wherein UPI ecosystem players were advised to used only alphanumeric characters for generating UPI transaction ID. This is to ensure compliance with UPI technical specifications," as per an official NPCI release.
NPCI has been working with the ecosystem to improve compliance, through the issue has been largely resolved, it is observed that a few of the participants continue to be non-compliant. "Considering the criticality of compliance to the specifications, it has been decided not to allow any special characters in UPI transaction ID," the company said.
"Any transaction with ID containing special characters shall be declined by the central system," NPCI said.
All participating entities are advised to take note of the above and ensure compliance. "The information herein may please be disseminated to all the concerned for necessary action," the company clarified.
Transactions through the popular UPI system touched a record 16.73 billion in December, recording a growth of 8% over the preceding month, according to data released by the NPCI on Jan. 2. While, in November, the UPI transaction count was 15.48 billion.
NPCI said the value of the UPI transactions worked out to Rs 23.25 lakh crore in December 2024 as against Rs 21.55 lakh crore in November. The average daily transaction count during December was 539.68 million, up from 516.07 million in November.
