The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) instructions over the use to UPI in an offline mode to make payments of upto Rs 500 comes into effect from Thursday.
Earlier, the limit was Rs 200 which is now increased to Rs 500, an announcement for which was made during the August MPC.
The policy update comes under Section 10(2) read with Section 18 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (Act 51 of 2007) and shall come into effect immediately, the RBI said.
The six-member MPC has said to encourage wider adoption of this mode of payments and bring in more use cases into this mode, it is now proposed to increase the per transaction limit to Rs 500. The overall limit is, however, retained at Rs 2000 to contain the risks associated with relaxation of two-factor authentication.
It is to be noted that a limit of Rs 200 per transaction and an overall limit of Rs 2000 per payment instrument has been prescribed by the Reserve Bank for small value digital payments in offline mode including for National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) and UPI Lite.
By removing the need for two-factor authentication for small value transactions, these channels enable faster, reliable, and contactless mode of payments for everyday small value payments, transit payments etc. Since then, there have been demands for enhancing these limits.
RBI had issued a framework for Facilitating Small Value Digital Payments in Offline Mode in January 2022 allowing offline payments up to Rs 200.
The move was aimed at pushing digital transactions in rural and semi-urban areas.
It is to be noted that in August 2020, the central bank proposed to allow a pilot scheme for small value payments in off-line mode with built-in features for safeguarding interest of users, liability protection.
