Reserve Bank of India extends UPI for inbound travellers from G20 nations

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced on Tuesday that it had extended Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for in-bound travellers from G20 nations to make local payments using while they are in India. This facility is made available from on Tuesday.

RBI said in a release, "To start with, it is available to travelers from G20 countries, at select international airports (Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi)." Eligible travellers would be issued prepaid payment instruments (PPI) wallets linked to UPI for making payments at merchant outlets.

Delegates from G20 countries can also avail this facility at various meeting venues. To begin with, ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank and two non-bank PPI issuers, Pine Labs Private Limited and Transcorp International Limited will issue UPI linked wallets.

Earlier, on February 8, the apex bank announced a facility to enable all inbound travellers visiting India to make local payments using UPI while they are in India.

Travellers or non-resident Indians visiting India can now experience the convenience of UPI payments at over five crore merchant outlets across India, that accept QR Code-based UPI payments.

Prepaid payment instruments' examples include smart cards, online accounts, online wallets, stripe cards, paper vouchers, etc. The primary objective of these instruments is to get access to the amount already prepaid.