India is reportedly working on a new Unified Payments Interface (UPI) feature. The upcoming capability could allow users to carry out transactions without an active internet connection. This upcoming feature could enable digital payments in remote and low-network areas. Merchant point-of-sale (PoS) companies will reportedly need certification from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to support offline UPI payments.
India May Soon Get UPI Payments Without Internet Connectivity
Business Standard, citing three people familiar with the matter, reports that India will soon enable payments without an Internet connection on either the customer’s smartphone or the merchant’s PoS terminal. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is said to start certifying compatible PoS terminals for enabling offline payments later this year.
The offline UPI feature is said to function based on NFC technology. Once available, users can make offline UPI payments by just tapping their NFC-enabled smartphones on supported payment terminals. Offline transactions are expected to be limited to Rs. 2,000 per payment initially. It is likely to be helpful to make payments in remote areas, on flights and on underground metros.
The offline UPI feature is expected to work through an on-device UPI Lite wallet. Users might initially have to load money into the wallet while connected to the internet to make payments at supported offline PoS terminals later without needing an internet connection or entering a UPI PIN. This transaction will use the UPI Lite balance.
“PoS companies will need a certification from NPCI to accept UPI in an offline setting. They can create an application on top of it after they get certified,” the report cites a person from a fintech firm with knowledge of the matter as saying.
After receiving the certification from NPCI, merchant PoS companies can build applications and services on top of the certified platform to enable tap-to-pay functionality.
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