RBI enhances UPI Lite wallet limits, updates offline payments framework

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday enhanced the per-transaction and wallet limits for transactions made on UPI Lite to Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000, respectively.

 

Earlier, the per-transaction limit and wallet limit for transactions made through Unified Payments Interface (UPI) Lite were set at Rs 500 and Rs 2,000, respectively.

 

The banking regulator updated the framework for facilitating small-value digital payments in offline mode after RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das announced the increase in limits for UPI Lite transactions in October.

 

The limits have been increased to encourage wider adoption of the UPI product.

 

The UPI Lite feature enables low-value transactions without requiring a UPI PIN. These transactions are carried out without utilising a remitter bank’s core banking systems in real-time, according to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

 

 

During his monetary policy speech in October, Das also announced that the per-transaction limit in UPI123Pay was enhanced from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.

 

The enhancement in limits for UPI products comes amid increasing adoption of the flagship real-time payments system and the expanding use cases of such transactions.

 

UPI has recorded 155.44 billion transactions in 2024 on a cumulative basis.