RBI governor Shaktikanta Das on Tuesday launched UPI 123PAY, which will allow India’s 40 crore feature phone users to access the payment service.

The launch of the UPI will help the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to reach its goal of processing a billion transactions a day.

It will also help the RBI reach its objective of a less-cash economy.

The volume of UPI transactions in the current fiscal so far stands at Rs 76 lakh crore.

Users can transfer funds through the IVR number, app functionality, missed calls and proximity sound-based payments.

Customers can perform P2P payments, utility bill payments, FASTag recharge and also pay mobile bills through UPI123 pay.

Most of the smartphone functionalities will be available on feature phones except scan and pay.

The NPCI, an RBI promoted body which creates and operates UPI, had launched a USSD-based service to enable UPI access for feature phone users, within months of the launch of the main platform for smartphone users in 2016.

However, the service was found to be cumbersome, not free and was not supported by all telcos, deputy governor T. Rabi Shankar said.

Das rued that the multifaceted features of the UPI are available mostly on smartphones as of now and people from the lower rung of the society, especially in the rural areas, are not able to access the payments service even as smartphones have become cheaper.

Payment limit up

New Delhi: Sebi on Tuesday increased the investment limit for payments through UPI mechanism for retail investors buying debt securities in public issues to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 2 lakh at present in its effort to bring ease of investment for investors.

The new framework will be applicable to public issues of debt securities which open on or after May 1, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a circular.

The current Sebi rules provide an option to investors to apply in public issues of debt securities with the facility to block funds through UPI (unified payment interface) mechanism for application value of up to Rs 2 lakh.

Based on discussions with market participants and in order to bring uniformity in the requirements as well as for ease of investment for investors, Sebi has now decided to increase the limit for investment through UPI mechanism to Rs 5 lakh.

The investor may utilise the mechanism to block the funds for application value of up to Rs 5 lakh per application.

UPI is an instant payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India(NPCI).

It allows instant transfer of money between any two individuals' bank accounts using a payment.

In December 2021, NPCI had enhanced the per transaction limit in UPI from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for UPI-based Application Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA) Initial Public Offer (IPO). PTI