The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) unveiled UPI Lite on Tuesday for feature phones, enabling offline transactions for small amounts for Indian consumers. Shaktikanta Das, governor of the RBI, introduced the on-device wallet together with the introduction of UPI on RuPay credit cards and the opening of the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) for international bill payments. Recall that the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) announced the introduction of UPI Lite in India in March. As previously stated, transactions may be permitted in offline mode, but the first stage of depositing funds into the account may necessitate an online connection.
The launch of UPI Lite, which will enable users to conduct offline internet transactions for small amounts of money, was announced by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das. While UPI Lite’s launch was announced in March, the infrastructure to enable small value digital payments in offline mode was introduced in January.
Users of UPI Lite will be able to make modest value transactions up to Rs. 200 using the on-device wallet. However, the on-device wallet’s maximum total amount was Rs. 2,000, as NPCI had previously disclosed. It should be emphasised that UPI Lite would provide Paytm and MobiKwik, two popular online mobile wallets, fierce competition.
As previously stated, debit payments can initially be displayed in offline mode; however, credit to the account will only be available when it is online. All UPI transactions, however, can later be switched to full offline mode.
The ability to disable UPI Lite services at any moment from UPI apps is crucial. The On-Device Wallet balance will then be instantly transferred back to the User Account in this situation.
The Governor also announced UPI on RuPay credit cards and enabled Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) for international bill payments in addition to UPI Lite. Only Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, and Indian Bank will launch UPI on RuPay credit cards through the BHIM app in the initial phase. Meanwhile, Federal Bank and UAE’s LuLu Exchange will begin accepting cross-border bill payments via BBPS.
