India’s central bank on Wednesday announced that all inbound travelers to India are permitted to access UPI for their merchant payments (P2M) using their international mobile numbers, while they are in the country. This is an enhancement to the earlier provision of UPI access to non-resident Indians who have international mobile numbers linked to their NRE / NRO accounts.
Last month, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) instructed members of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ecosystem to allow non-resident account types such as non-resident external (NRE)/ non-resident ordinary (NRO) accounts having international mobile numbers to get on-boarded and transact through UPI. Earlier to that, the service was only available for accounts with Indian numbers (+91) linked to them.
“To start with, this facility will be extended to travelers 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” said RBI notification.
This is subject to the fact that the member banks have to ensure such types of accounts are only allowed as per extant Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) regulations and adherence to the guidelines issued by the concerned regulatory departments of RBI from time to time. Also, all necessary anti-money laundering/ combating of financing of terrorism checks and compliance validation as per the rules have to be ensured by the remitter and beneficiary banks. NPCI has asked the members to comply with directions by April 30, 2023.
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