The UPI platform will soon be available to non-residents from ten countries, including the United States, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates, according to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
PTI reported this information, citing a January 10 NPCI circular. The circular states that non-residents from Singapore, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom will be able to digitally transfer funds from NRE/NRO accounts using the UPI platform.
Requests to allow non-residents to use international mobile numbers for UPI transactions have been coming in to NPCI. Non-residents with NRE/NRO accounts will be able to transfer funds using their international mobile numbers, as NPCI has asked UPI participants to implement a mechanism by April 30.
“To begin, we shall be enabling transaction from mobile numbers having the country code of (10 nations)… and shall extend for other country codes in the near future…” was the statement made by the operator of the UPI platform, NPCI. NRIs will be able to easily transfer money and pay bills thanks to this move, which will make their time in India much more convenient.
Mandar Agashe, the founder and MD of Sarvatra Technologies, explained that the SIM binding security feature, which is an important part of UPI, was only available to Indian SIM card phones up until now, making it impossible for NRIs to access the UPI network.
NRIs, on the other hand, will now be able to link their international SIM-linked NRE and NRO accounts to UPI and use it just like any other Indian UPI user for peer-to-peer and merchant payments.
It is important to note that for legal rupee transactions, NRIs and PIOs can open Non-Resident (External) Rupee (NRE) bank accounts, and anyone living outside of India can open Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) accounts. These individuals will be able to make payments and transfer funds with ease while they are in India thanks to this new development.
