UPI Lite, Bharat BillPay Cross-Border Bill Payments, RuPay credit card on UPI launched by RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Tuesday, has launched the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) Lite for feature phones that will work without an active internet connection. Alongside UPI Lite, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das also launched the RuPay credit card on UPI and Bharat BillPay Cross-Border Bill Payments.

UPI Lite enables users to transact small amounts offline using a feature phone but requires an internet connection for loading money to the UPI on-device wallet. As per the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), users don’t need their PIN for making payments for up to Rs. 200 using UPI Lite, and the on-device wallet limit is up to Rs. 2,000 at any given time. Users can also disable their UPI Lite account at any time, and their on-device wallet balance will be transferred to their Bank account.

Currently, eight banks support the UPI Lite feature, including Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, Indian Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, and Utkarsh Small Finance Bank. UPI Lite currently works in near offline mode, in which only payments (debit) can be made in offline mode while crediting into the account works only in online mode. However, in the future, both debit and credit will work without an internet connection.

Previously, only debit card was allowed to link with the UPI, and now users can link their RuPay credit card with their UPI ID for secure transactions. Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, and Indian Bank customers will be the first ones to use the RuPay credit card on UPI through the BHIM App. Bharat BillPay Cross-Border Bill Payments will be available for Federal Bank and UAE’s Lulu Exchange.