India's UPI service to launch in Sri Lanka, Mauritius today: Which countries already have it?

Sri Lanka and Mauritius, on Monday, will add to the list of countries to have launched India’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI). The move is seen as New Delhi’s efforts to ramp up the expansion of its digital infrastructure to more nations.

The “historic launch” of India’s UPI in Sri Lanka and Mauritius will be witnessed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, and Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

RuPay card services will also be launched in Mauritius on Monday.

The launch event is scheduled for Monday, 12 February, at 1 pm (IST). It will be held via video conferencing.

Benefit of India’s UPI service in Sri Lanka & Mauritius

According to MEA, the launch will enable the availability of UPI settlement for Indian nationals travelling to Sri Lanka and Mauritius as well as for Mauritian nationals travelling to India.

The extension of RuPay card services in Mauritius will allow Mauritian banks to issue cards based on the RuPay mechanism in Mauritius and facilitate usage of RuPay Card for settlements both in India and Mauritius.

“Given India’s robust cultural and people-to-people linkages with Sri Lanka and Mauritius, the launch will benefit a wide cross-section of people through a faster and seamless digital transaction experience and enhance digital connectivity between the countries,” the MEA said.

The ministry further added that India has emerged as a leader in Fintech innovation and Digital Public Infrastructure. Prime Minister has placed a strong emphasis on sharing our development experiences and innovation with partner countries.

Countries accepting India’s UPI

Bhutan

Bhutan became the first international country to enable UPI transactions through the BHIM app.

The UPI digital payment app was virtually launched on 13 July 2021, by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her Bhutanese counterpart Lyonpo Namgay Tshering.

France

Earlier this month, France started accepting UPI in the iconic Eiffel Tower. The official announcement was made in Paris at an event organised by the Indian Embassy in France to celebrate India’s Republic Day.

The move holds significance as Indian tourists rank as the second largest group of international visitors to the Eiffel Tower. It will help visitors make secure online transactions by using their UPI apps to scan QR code generated on the merchant website and initiate a payment.

UAE

In April 2022, NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) partnered with Mashreq Bank’s payments subsidiary NEOPAY in the UAE to empower millions of Indians travelling in the country safely and conveniently to make payments using BHIM UPI.

Oman

The Central Bank of Oman got into a formal agreement with NIPL in November 2022 to enable UPI for digital transactions on all platforms.

The talks between the two nations were finalised in October 2022.

Singapore

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Monetary Authority Singapore (MAS) announced the linking of UPI and PayNow to facilitate fast cross-border transactions between the two nations.

Countries that may soon start using UPI

Nepal may soon join the list of countries using India’s UPI. Indian Ambassador Naveen Srivastava in December 2023 said the digital payment gateway between India and Nepal is expected to start in the first phase from the end of February 2024.

The agreement for this was signed between NPCI and Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL) during the visit of Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to India last year.

In January last year, NPCI announced the extension of access to the UPI to non-resident Indians using international mobile phone numbers from 10 select countries.

These countries are Singapore (+65), Australia (+61), Canada (+1), Hong Kong (+852), Oman (+968), Qatar (+974), USA (+1), Saudi Arabia (+966), United Arab Emirates (+971) and United Kingdom (+44).

What is UPI & how does it work?

UPI is a mobile-based, real-time payment system that enables users to instantly transfer funds between two bank accounts anytime during the day.

Launched in 2016, the UPI system allows multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application.

The concept was developed by the National Payments Corporation of India and is governed by the RBI and IBA (Indian Bank Association). It gained massive popularity in India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With more than 380 million users, UPI, in 2022, recorded up to 74 billion transactions amounting to $1.53 trillion.

In January 2024 alone, UPI recorded over 12.2 billion transactions.

With inputs from agencies