Accounts like NRE/NRO (Non Resident External and Non resident Ordinary) with international mobile numbers can transact using UPI, according to the National Payments Corporation of India

NEW DELHI — Non Resident Indians (NRIs) in Singapore, United States, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and United Kingdom will soon be able to access the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for transactions using their international mobile numbers. Now they will not depend on their India phone number.

According to the National Payments Corporation of India, accounts like NRE/NRO (Non Resident External and Non resident Ordinary) with international mobile numbers can transact using UPI.

The Payments Corporation has given partner banks time till April 30th to comply with the directions.

The only conditions are that banks will have to ensure such accounts are allowed according to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) regulations, follow the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and guard against money laundering or terror financing.

NRIs couldn’t access the UPI network because the feature is SIM binding and up until now it was available only to Indian SIM card phones.
But now, NRIs will just need to link their NRE and NRO accounts to their international SIM to UPI and use it.

An NRE account helps NRIs transfer foreign earnings to India, while an NRO account helps them manage the income earned in India.

A cabinet committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday approved a ₹ 2,600 crore scheme for promoting RuPay debit cards and low-value BHIM-UPI transactions, reports ANI.

The big UPI move will help international students, family living abroad and local businesses, said officials.

Under the scheme, banks will be provided financial incentives for promoting transactions using RuPay and UPI.

“India’s strides in digital payments will be further strengthened by today’s Cabinet decision regarding promotion of RuPay Debit Cards and BHIM-UPI transactions,” PM Modi said in a tweet.