RBI enhances transaction limits on UPI 123, UPI Lite

To encourage wider adoption of unified payments interface (UPI), the RBI on Thursday announced an increase in transaction limits on UPI123 and UPI Lite.

UPI 123, which was started in March 2022 to enable feature-phone users to use UPI, is now available in 12 languages. Currently, the per-transaction limit in UPI123Pay is capped at ₹5,000.

To widen use-cases, the RBI, in consultation with stakeholders, has decided to enhance the per-transaction limit to ₹10,000. Necessary instructions will be issued to NPCI shortly, it said.

The RBI also decided to enhance transactions via UPI Lite from ₹500 per transaction and an overall limit of ₹2,000 per UPI Lite wallet, to a per-transaction limit of ₹1,000 and an overall wallet limit of ₹5,000.

The framework for facilitating small value payments in offline digital mode issued by the RBI under UPI Lite had been enabled and would be suitably amended, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said.

The RBI has also decided to introduce beneficiary account name look-up facility for for Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS) and National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) systems in line with payment systems like UPI and IMPS, providing a facility to the remitter to verify the name of the receiver (beneficiary) before initiating a payment transaction.

“To enable remitters in RTGS and NEFT to verify the name of the beneficiary account holder before initiating funds transfer, it is now proposed to introduce a beneficiary account name look-up facility,” RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced on Thursday.

“Remitters can input the account number and the branch IFSC code of the beneficiary, following which the name of the beneficiary will be displayed. This facility will increase customer confidence as it would reduce the possibility of wrong credits and frauds. Detailed guidelines will be issued separately,” he added.

“The enhancement of limits under UPI is a testimony to the continuous innovation in India’s digital infrastructure,” State Bank of India Chairman Challa Sreenivasulu Setty said.