The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the transaction limit for UPI 123Pay from ₹5,000 to ₹10,000, with NPCI instructing banks and service providers to comply. UPI 123Pay allows digital payments via feature phones without internet access, utilizing methods like IVR, missed calls, OEM apps, and sound technology. While the changes are effective immediately, NPCI has set a deadline of January 1, 2025, for full implementation.
Key changes to come into effect before Jan 1, 2025.
1. The transaction limit is to be raised from ₹5,000 to ₹10,000.
2. Onboarding for these transactions to be implemented with Aadhaar OTP in UPI 123Pay.
3. The members will collectively identify and tag UPI 123Pay transactions as per the rules given below:
A.) New purpose code 86 is issued for UPI 123Pay transactions. All 123Pay transactions should be passed with purpose code 86 in the purpose=” “tag for financial and non financial transactions.
B.) Initiation modes to be passed as per UPI procedural guidelines. Earlier allotted initiation mode =31 will be considered null and void.
C.) Initiation channel
On call based: <Tag name= “TYPE” value = “IVR”/>
Feature phone based application: <Tag name = “TYPE” value = “FP”/>
Missed call based: <Tag name = “TYPE” value = “MCP”/>
Sound frequency based: <Tag name = “TYPE” value = “TONE”/>
4. The members will implement UPI number functionality through integration with UPI numeric ID mapper.
Apart from UPI 123Pay, RBI had raised the limit of UPI Lite wallet as well from ₹2,000 to ₹5,000 and each transaction limit from ₹500 to ₹1,000.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had then said that the limits were raised because UPI has changed India’s financial landscape significantly by making digital payments more accessible and inclusive through ongoing innovation. He also mentioned that these changes were done to further promote UPI adoption.