RBI to extend UPI to feature-phone users

‘Move to deepen digital payments’

The UPI facility will soon be extended to feature phone users. At the moment, the unified payments interface (UPI) — the single largest retail payments system in the country in terms of volume of transactions for small-value payments — is available only for smartphones.

“To further deepen digital payments and make them more inclusive, ease transactions for consumers, facilitate greater participation of retail customers in various segments of financial markets and to enhance the capacity of service providers, it is proposed to launch UPI-based payment products for feature phone users, leveraging on innovative products from the RBI’s regulatory sandbox on retail payments,” the RBI said.

The regulator has also proposed to make the process flow for small-value transactions simpler through an ‘on-device’ wallet in UPI applications. It has also decided to enhance the transaction limit for payments through UPI for the Retail Direct Scheme for investment in G-secs and Initial Public Offering (IPO) applications from ₹2 lakh to ₹5 lakh. Ajay Chaurasia, Head of Product, RupeeRedee, a digital lending app, said, “This move will help RBI to reach out to underserved population or potential users located in low-connectivity areas by deploying cost-saving methods to provide increased access to digital payment methods.”