Bhutan first country to adopt UPI; FM hails platform's role during lockdown

Sitharaman says platform facilitated 22 billion transactions worth Rs 41 trillion in 2020-21

The BHIM-UPI platform has stood out as an effective payment instrument during the lockdown, facilitating 22 billion transactions in 2020-21, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at the launch of the home-grown platform in Bhutan.

Transactions totaling Rs 41 trillion were undertaken seamlessly during the Covid-19 lockdown on BHIM-UPI, Sitharaman added.

“Particularly the pandemic year has been the strong point for BHIM-UPI,” Sitharaman said. In the five years since its launch in India, more than 100 million QR codes have been deployed, she added.

UPI-based transactions hit an all time high of 2.81 billion transactions in June amounting to Rs 5.47 trillion, over 11 per cent higher than May 2021, and witnessing an 88 per cent jump from June 2020.

Earlier today, National Payment Corporation of India announced that its international arm, NPCI International Payments Ltd, has partnered with the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) of Bhutan for implementing BHIM UPI QR-based payments in the neighboring country.

“It is a proud moment for India that we are sharing (the platform) with Bhutan, and will be very happy that it comes of help to tourists and others,” Sitharaman said.

The Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan (RMA), the neighboring nation’s central bank, will ensure the participating NPCI mobile application through UPI QR transactions is accepted at all RMA acquired merchants in the country. Bhutan will also become the only country to both issue and accept RuPay cards, said a statement by NPCI.

The launch will benefit more than 200,000 tourists from India who travel to Bhutan each year. With this launch, Bhutan will become the first country to adopt Unified Payment Interface (UPI) standards for its QR deployment. Bhutan will also become the only country to both issue and accept RuPay cards. India and Bhutan have already enabled inter-operability in acceptance of Rupay cards in both countries in two phases. The first includes acceptance of Rupay cards issued in India at Bhutan-based terminals, and acceptance of cards issued in Bhuran at Indian terminals in the second phase.

Launched in 2016, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant real-time payment system that allows users to transfer money across multiple bank accounts without sharing details such as account number.

In April 2020, NPCI International Payments was launched to expand the homegrown UPI platform, and card payment network Rupay in other countries.