Soon, people will be able to make payments using Unified Payments Interface (UPI) outside the country, reported The Economic Times. Two bankers close to the development told the newspaper that the payment method will be made accessible to Indians travelling abroad while making purchases.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which runs the inter-bank fund transfer mechanism is working to enable the feature within the next six months, starting with the UAE and Singapore, sources told the paper.

“These two countries already have opened up to RuPay cards; now the target is to enable UPI payments. This will be a big boost for Indians travelling in those countries and, just like their debit card or credit card, they can pay via UPI,” a senior banker was quoted as saying in the report.

The development is significant as such a step could help in the creation of a global payment model which in turn will increase the user base of UPI. There was over 95 crore transaction using the UPI last month.

Earlier, the report said, Nandan Nilekani-led committee on digital payments formed by the RBI had suggested that NPCI should expand the international footprint of its payment systems like UPI, RuPay and BHIM.

However, such a step will not be easy as the NPCI will have to rely on banks and merchant aggregators in those countries and gain the confidence of local merchants.

First Published:Oct 24, 2019 11:38 AM IST