On September 20, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das introduced the Unified Payments Interface UPI Lite in a bid to make low-value payments faster.
It is an on-device wallet feature that will allow users to make small payments of up to 200 in real time without needing a PIN. Users will have to add funds from their bank accounts to the UPI Lite wallet. Users won't need the internet for a real-time payment, as it is an on-device wallet. Credits to UPI Lite, including refunds, will go directly to your bank account, but only debit from wallet is permitted.
The upper limit for payments has been set at 200, according to a press release by National Payments Corporation of India NPCI. Payments below 200 are not required by users with a UPI PIN, according to the website. The total balance of the UPI Lite balance for an on-device wallet will be Rs 2,000 at any point in time, according to the press release.
Union Bank of India also released a press release on the launch day of UPI Lite and stated that users can perform unlimited transactions during a day.
In phase 1 of its roll out, UPI Lite will process transactions in near offline mode. Credit payments can be made without internet connectivity, but credit payments will be done into the account with the help of the internet. UPI Lite will be offline in the future, where both credit and debit payments can be processed in offline mode.
How will it benefit the users?
Users will be able to use a simpler and faster low-value transaction with the addition of a new interface. The customers will not have to worry about losing cash anymore. Even at peak hours, it will give customers an extra edge by offering nil transaction failure.