RBI to enhance UPI, will introduce facility measures

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das on December 7 said the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will offer single-block-and-multiple-debits functionality.

The governor said that with this, the capabilities of the UPI system, which currently includes functionality to process payment mandates for recurring as well as single-block-and-single-debit transactions, will be further augmented. The new facility will enable a customer to block funds in his/her account for specific purposes, which can be debited whenever needed.

“This will significantly enhance the ease of making payments for investments in securities including through the Retail Direct platform as well as e-commerce transactions,” Das said in his statement.

Jyoti Prakash Gadia, managing director, Resurgent India, a SEBI-registered merchant bank, said the single-block-and-multiple-debits feature will expand the scope of UPI by facilitating multiple payments. “The announcement will enable a more efficient and user-friendly mechanism to further popularise this payments platform,” Gadia said.

Sadaf Sayeed, chief executive officer, Muthoot Micro Finance, said that UPI’s growth has been amazing in India and the RBI’s decision on improving it will create a payment ecosystem better than that of many developed economies.

“Apart from the JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) trinity, the UPI payment system is the greatest innovation of recent times by the government and RBI,” said Sayeed.